New Westminster Record March 22 2018

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CITY 5

Easter (lice) egg hunt set COMMUNITY 11

Library reno rolling along ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 27

THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND

Save the date for Cabaret

THURSDAY MARCH 22, 2018

There’s more online at

Y O U R

SEE PAGE 15

NewWestRecord.ca

LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS

H O M E T O W N

N E W S P A P E R

A SPECIAL REPORT

New school is already too small School district asked for another floor, but ministry of education said students could go to Burnaby schools

By Cayley Dobie

cdobie@newwestrecord.ca

New Westminster’s new high school is too small and it’s not even built yet, according to the district’s new superintendent. Site preparation for the $106.5-million New Westminster Secondary School replacement project is underway, and construction is expected to be complete in two years, with its official opening planned for September 2020.When it’s ready, it’ll have room for 1,900 students but the district’s enrolment projections predict there will be 80 more than that by then. “The ministry doesn’t fund on projected enrolment,” says Karim Hachlaf, the school district’s new superintendent. “This project was funded on our current enrolment projections, so the school is built for 1,900.” And Hachlaf isn’t the only one concerned about the size of the future school. Former school board chair Brent Atkinson attended a recent board of education meeting to ask trustees what their plans were to address the issue. “The city council and the city itself is putting up all these condos.We used to project that the condos maybe would (result in) six students or eight students. (But) now because of the cost of Continued on page 3

NOT BIG ENOUGH

A rendering shows what the students’ patio might look like at the new New Westminster Secondary School when it’s complete in 2020. The school district’s new superintendent says the school will likely be too small to accommodate the projected student population when it opens. IMAGE CONTRIBUTED

THE CHANGING CITY

Mayor backs new transit funding plan By Theresa McManus

tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca

The provincial government’s decision to fully fund a new Pattullo Bridge has helped push a $7-billion regional transit plan across the finish line. The Mayors’ Council on Regional Trans-

portation and the provincial government recently agreed on a plan to fund the regional share for Phase 2 of the Mayors’ Council’s 10-Year vision. Phase 2 of the plan includes construction of Surrey-Newton-Guildford Light Rail, construction of the Broadway extension to the Millennium line, upgrade of existing Expo and Millennium SkyTrain

lines to expand capacity to meet and improve the customer experience, improvements to sidewalks, bikeways, multi-use pathways and roadways, and an eight per cent increase in bus service to address overcrowding, reduce wait times and bring bus services to communities with limited service.

While transit and transportation improvements have been a longstanding issue in the region, Mayor Jonathan Cote said funding has been a hurdle. “I think this is a really big accomplishment,” he said. “Ultimately we are going to Continued on page 8

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