Time is running out if you’d like to tell the school board what to do about declining enrolment at Stawamus Elementary School, which could close.
And the school board is also carefully eying enrolment trends at other Squamish-area schools, some of which will be overcapacity within a few years, officials said during public meetings held Tuesday evening at Howe Sound Secondary School.
This past fall, only six kindergarten students showed up for school at Stawamus Elementary.
“Those are numbers that are really hard to deal with, over time,” superintendent of schools Lisa McCullough told parents who showed up for the first public meeting Tuesday.
Stawamus will need $665,000 in building maintenance over the next decade in addition to its annual operating cost of $300,000 to $400,000, said the superintendent, who noted “the need to balance a school that is dear to everybody’s heart with financial responsibility.”
The public will have a chance to speak as registered delegations at two Sea to Sky (No. 48) school board meetings, Feb. 4 and Feb. 11, and can also fill out a new survey to let the board know their opinions.
Stawamus is operating at 42 per cent capacity right now, said director of facilities and services Rick Hume. The school, which has a working capacity of 182, has only 76 pupils in total this year across all grades from kindergarten to Grade 6. “Student enrolment is expected to remain significantly below capacity,” said Hume.
The school board is considering four options: maintaining current use and trying to grow enrolment; shared use of the building with another group; repurposing the building for another use (which McCullough noted would likely mean students would move out); or closing the school and selling or developing it.
During the school board meeting on March 11, “one way or another, they will make a decision,” McCullough told The Squamish Chief.
However, no decisions are expected to be made this year regarding the other Squamish-area schools, some of which will soon be overcapacity. McCullough said the board has “wiggle room” at some schools to operate over capacity in the short term.
At Brackendale Elementary, slow growth is predicted. Valleycliffe Elementary is also expected to see a bit of an increase, “but it does flatten out in the future,” Hume said.
At Garibaldi Highlands Elementary School, however, rapid growth is predicted. Enrolment is expected to “increase considerably” and is projected to reach capacity by 2017. “That’s just a few years down the road,” he said.
At Mamquam Elementary, in an area with what Hume notes is “a lot of high-density housing,” growth is also predicted. “We expect to reach capacity by 2018,” he said. “It’s getting close and we are going to have to watch this school.”
However, numbers are expected to drop at Squamish Elementary, despite development planned for downtown. “There may be some lean or some tough years, and this is the school that would experience that,” said the facilities and services director.
Grade 7s in the Squamish area were all moved to Don Ross Secondary (Middle) School this year, which houses Grades 7 to 9. Increases are expected at Don Ross, but the school continues to accept international students, as does Howe Sound Secondary School, where enrolment is “flat,” Hume said. “It is a very small secondary school. We are well below capacity.”
McCullough said, despite the movement of Grade 7s this year, the board is not considering another similar change. “We are not moving Grade 6s,” she assured the gathered parents Tuesday night.
Board Chairman Rick Price said he was pleased with the turnout of about 30 parents at the early meeting Tuesday. The board had added a second meeting at 5 p.m. to allow people to attend both the school presentation and the Squamish council meeting, held the same evening.
“I was surprised we had as many as we did,” Price said. “At least the public outnumbered the staff.”
