Somewhere out there, in a parallel universe, there’s a parallel New Westminster where, the week before last, nearly 2000 high school students walked into a brand new high school. Their new high school isn’t laden with asbestos nor is it being held together with Bondo. It doesn’t leak when it rains or snows, and best of all – in this parallel New Westminster – an exhausted rat-catcher is now mercifully being sent off to a well-deserved retirement. The entire focus at this parallel universe high school is on learning, not dreading what’s going to happen next.
Unfortunately, none of the above is happening here in the New Westminster we live in and the week before last our high school students returned to the same critically wounded NWSS they inhabited last year and the year before that.
There’s no point elaborating here on what went wrong with the high school replacement project or the negative impacts the endless delays and screw ups have had on students, staff and parents alike: these have been well-chronicled elsewhere.
But now that our kids are all back at school, the big question on the mind of many parents and community members is surely going to be “WHEN” will the new high school project finally get underway?
As we wait to hear fresh news of where things stand with the project, and whether the summer months have brought any solid progress, we can only shudder to imagine what bizarre new obstacles could conceivably be thrown in the project’s path.
In the interim, I’ve prepared a brief report from the notes I took last June 27, 2008 at an information meeting organized by incoming DPAC Chair Margot Barton (click here to read my report). Doug Hibbins presented information directly to those of us in attendance and it was extremely helpful to hear the information firsthand. I’m certain that all those who were in attendance at the meeting were most appreciative.
- Patrick O'Connor
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5 comments:
I find it embarrassing that my kids attend school in a district that has become the laughing-stock of the Lower Mainland. You just have to look at that wreck of a high school on the corner to see a constant reminder of the staggering incompetence of this school board. Hyack pride indeed!
The high school project is not the only example of their incompetence. The business company! The third middle school! The reports left unread! The crazy split classes! The budget cuts at a time other districts are enjoying surpluses!
This school board has three members who have been part of decisions for 20+ years. They have become stuck on positions they took years ago, fossilized in their opinions and unwilling to change decades-old ideas.
Enough. It's time for a change. New Westminster kids deserve better than the dinosaur brigade. It's time for them to step aside and let the next generation clean up the mess they've left.
Speaking of parallel universes, I see that Mr. Ewen is trying to recreate history again.
His little diatribe on consensus is laughable. He doesn't know what consensus is. It is easy to control things when you have three or four flunkies who tow the party line every time.
Ewen doesn't work for consensus, he bullies, ignores, intimidates,
changes the rules, is sanctimonious, is a hypocrite.
He is the main reason the school board is completely dysfunctional.
This school district really has become a "train wreck."
We thought things were bad when, time and again, under the watch of trustee/business-company directors Ewen and Atkinson, the school district business company exceeded their budget without prior authorization from the school board and racked up a million-dollar debt that, to this day, is still owed to the school district.
Or when the district attempted to cover-up that staff and students at the high school were exposed to asbestos. It was only last week that the high school was labeled "disaster-prone." Indeed, even the need to cut 2.8 million dollars from this year's school budget has been eclipsed by the more immediate issues concerning the construction of our schools.
The troubles for the high school and middle school project began almost as soon as the province approved the district's capital request and granted funding for the two schools to be constructed on the NWSS site in 2003. To achieve an alternate middle school site, the board then concocted a complicated plan to construct high-rise towers on the NWSS site. The consequences of this decision resulted in heated and prolonged conflict between the school board and most of the rest of New Westminster.
Neighbouring citizens were concerned that the zoning status of their single-family neighbourhood would be threatened if high-rises were to be constructed at the corner of 8th Avenue and 8th Street. District parents felt it was inappropriate that only a token fence/wall-type partition would separate their children’s school from the residential high-rises, and everyone was concerned about increased traffic in the area.
When the district pushed forward with its plans and demolished their recently renovated board offices before the capital project was even put out to tender, they also closed down the Massey Theatre adversely affecting the Massey Theatre Society and its clients; unfortunately, the public campaign protesting the unnecessary closure failed to reverse the board's decision.
The district's battles with the Ministry of Education also made local headlines, but the feature "go-around" centered on school district and city hall relations: when the City vetoed the district's rezoning application (that would have allowed the construction of high-rise towers on the NWSS site), the tower-issue was once and for all resolved, but it rendered the project unaffordable.
Another controversial decision, detrimental to the project, erupted when Mayor Wayne Wright and Council vetoed a land-use study proposed by Casey Cook. Today, because of the cemetery issues, the question of the land-use study continues to receive press. The defeat of the land-use study effectively postponed dealing with the cemetery issues that are currently the source of delay in getting our schools built, and years have been lost in achieving those schools.
Nevertheless, fully ignoring that it was a mistake to defeat the land-use study, school trustee Michael Ewen publicly questioned the relevance of either the school district or the city doing a land-use study. He is also on record as challenging a letter by trustee Lisa Graham charging that she misrepresented the school board position on the land-use study issue. By a quick review of Graham’s letter, it is clear that she made absolutely no mention of a school board position on the matter. Even Mr. Ewen’s friend, trustee James Janzen questioned the point of Ewen’s “exercise”, and an astute letter-writer questioned if Ewen was simply trying to “create mischief” by his attack on Graham.
Ironically, by its terms of reference, a proper land-use study is conducted by the city, not the school board, and though Ewen claims to "vaguely" remember the issue, as Cook stated: "The facts are that the school board, in their efforts to stop the land-use study, offered to do a confined study of their own if the city would drop its plans."
Subsequent to that, local historian Archie Miller was commissioned by the district to do a site-history report.
Incredibly, the first attempt to build the schools resulted in seven million dollars being spent without even a shovel being put in the ground.
Having demolished their own offices on the high school property, the board offices became part of the Columbia Square lease (where they remain), and the over-capacity student enrollment at west-end schools has been accommodated by a plethora of on-site portables. Currently, only a few schools in NW are without portables.
As a result of the district’s failed attempt to build the new schools, the province assumed control of the capital projects and progress was being made until MLA Puchmayr announced that Tsilhquot'in Chief Ahan was buried on the high school site.
All progress on the schools was stopped so that research could be done and Puchmayr insisted that a historic receipt for a horse and wagon meant that the horse-and-wagon team was used to transport Ahan to the high-school site/cemetery for a post-execution burial. Further, the Tsilhquot'in threatened to go to court if construction plans for the new schools were reinitiated. All of this sparked critical letters of concern in the newspapers.
Then, despite the desperate need to build new schools, and despite the provincial research findings, and heedless of the letters of concern to the editor, MLA Puchmayr decided to travel to Williams Lake this summer to meet with the Tsilhquot'in, ... for what? Or should I say, for Watt? Amazingly, without discussing her trip with her board colleagues, school trustee Lori Watt jumped waist deep into the muck of the situation to accompany the MLA to Williams Lake, and like Mr. Puchmayr, she openly refuted the findings of the provincial research. As a curious aside to this, the NDP party leader Carole James was also visiting the Tsilhquot'in to present to them a certificate of recognition reiterating 1993 reports about the wrongful execution of the chiefs.
Truly, it makes me wonder: will MLA Puchmayr and school trustee Watt be campaigning in the Cariboo region for the upcoming elections, or is it that Watt is being groomed to run for the NDP as successor for MLA? If that is the case, my thought is, by all means, politick away, but please, not at the risk of further complicating the construction of New Westminster schools.
It is interesting to note that, as the saga continues, the Tsilhquot'in still believe that their chief might be at the high-school site, but for very different reasons than Mr. Puchmayr's.
Unlike Puchmayr, the Tsilhquot'in accept the findings of the provincial research that Ahan was not buried at the site post-execution, but instead, may have been one of three remains that were removed from the site of the old courthouse and reburied. Unfortunately, there is no documentation as to how the found-remains were reburied, and so it is possible that Ahan's remains (along with many others) are resting at the high-school site/Douglas Road Cemetery.
The one certain fact about the cemetery is that the district has been in possession of documentation about its existence for five years now, but it wasn't until this summer that all trustees received copy of the district-commissioned Archie Miller Report. I have to ask "why?"
It is disgraceful that it was known to be an issue, and considered serious enough to commission a report on it, but it was not acted upon in a timely manner. In fact, despite having confirmation that bodies might be buried on the site, the district chose to construct a parking lot over top of those lost graves. This is yet another sad example of how this board conducts its business.
Of course, according to the ever-helpful MLA Puchmayr, the entire debacle is the fault of the province: " 'the school district shouldn't be building the school. It's not in their terms of reference,' he said. 'Now we have a situation where everyone is going out of their way to make it part of their terms of reference because they want this done.' " Indeed! Everyone is frustrated with the unacceptable delays in having our schools built, but seriously, re-check your facts Mr. MLA, it actually is within the district's terms of reference to build schools - you might recall that, not too long ago, they built two “middle” schools.
The truth is, had the school board given the cemetery report its due consideration in a timely manner, and had Mayor Wright and Council approved a proper land-use study when it was proposed, seven million tax-payer dollars and five long, frustrating years would not have been wasted toward getting our school projects built.
It’s past time that “experience” be replaced by “competence”; undoubtedly, this will be an important issue in the upcoming elections.
Reportedly, the New Westminster school construction budget has been ear-marked at $100 million dollars. At this point, as stated by the District Parent Advisory Council Chair, Margot Barton: “ the issue is not that we have no money for construction. The issue is that we have no big chunks of land to build on.’ “
The school was built in 1948 on cemetery lands that the city traded to the school district. DPAC has announced that it intends to hold a town hall-style meeting open to everyone at a later date. When a date for this meeting is announced, a concerted effort should be made to attend.
Further, we should be lobbying Mayor and Council to help make good on the raw deal that their predecessors made with the school district: our school-children are equal members of both the city and the school district. We need to do right by them and find new, separate land sites for the new schools.
In closing, I would like to state that if Mr. Puchmayr (or any other named individual) would care to respond to this letter, I would appreciate it if it be done publicly instead of phoning me at home. The last time I wrote a letter, the MLA called me twice about it, and in the course of discussion, told me that he had no intention of pursuing legal action against letter-writers.
Personally, I did not take kindly to that comment. In my opinion, public letters should be answered with public responses.
Michelle Ballarin
I will not send my children to NWSS as it stands currently.
I will send them to Burnaby before I subject them to must now be a 'sick' building on the Mercer site.
Based on reports I've read and information I've gleaned from community members, the youth currently in attendance at NWSS 'can't wait to get out of there' every day.
I hope the city is ready for change. I hope we will not make the mistake the citizens of the United States made during their last election. The devil you know is.... well the devil.
Let's just cast them out shall we?
At least I know who should no longer deserve my vote as School Trustee. It's been a horrible waste of money and time we no longer have.
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