While entrepreneurs are carving out a niche for Squamish in the recreation technology industry, the community is also capturing the spotlight in the education field.
Last year, Quest University beat out Ivy League schools as students scrambled to enter its doors. Only Harvard topped the Squamish university’s success rate based on the number of pupils offered admission versus those who decided to attend.
Coast Mountain Academy is adding its name to the field of innovative education — marketing itself as a forward-thinking, small school that supports cross-curricular learning opportunities. Every morning, students get their exercise in gym class, all students participate in business studies and learning is integrated into field trips that make the material relevant.
Opened last September, the school is already drawing students away from Whistler and private schools in West Vancouver. Its head count of 17 is about to triple during the 2014-’15 school year, said Heather Dunham, the school’s business manager.
To accommodate the jump, the academy is on the move. Currently housed in classrooms on the Quest campus, the school is leasing a three-acre site from the institution for the coming school year.
On Tuesday (June 24), the academy hosted its official groundbreaking for the new property. The school will place four modern-styled portables on the lot until academy officials start construction on the school’s future home.
“We just put in our development application,” Dunham said, noting staff anticipate having building permits in place by mid-July.
Starting a school is not an easy undertaking, Coast Mountain’s founding board member David Greenfield said. But one of the masterminds behind the Sea to Sky Gondola saw a business opportunity.
“There really isn’t a secondary education independent school in the corridor,” he noted.
In Whistler alone, up to 30 families send their children to private schools on Vancouver Island, Greenfield said. In Squamish, fellow founding board member Toran Savjord said he knows of 10 families who moved to the Lower Mainland so their children could attend independent schools. Overall, the number of British Columbia parents opting out of the public system is on the rise. In 2007-’08, private school pupils made up 10.8 per cent of the B.C. student population. Last year that number was bumped to 12 per cent, or one in eight students.
Coast Mountain aims to draw more students to town with its performance academies. Based on the corridor’s needs, the school has created specialized programs in soccer and ice hockey. Next year staff is adding dance and music to the list. And that’s only the beginning, the academy’s head of school David Baird said.
“There is real interest in mountain biking,” he noted, adding he’s been talking to the coach of Canada’s national mountain biking team.
The academy has a boarding system in place, with students staying at Squamish families’ houses. Down the road, Baird said he hopes to see it expanded.
“I would love to have a component of boarding here,” he said.
Ideally, Baird said he’d like to see Coast Mountain with a student population of approximately 250. That way the school would be able to continue its approach to education, taking students on learning missions outside the classroom.
The academy has launched an online campaign to raise money for the initial development of its new campus. With $75,000 in the bank, the school’s staff aims to generate $150,000 to cover Phase 1 of construction. The Indiegogo site is titled, “From the Ground Up: Help Us Build a 21st-Century School for our Community.”
Education will be a key development driver in Squamish over the next 10 years, Baird said. Just as with other industries, the field boosts the local economy. But it’s often overlooked, Greenfield noted.
Coast Mountain Academy is adding to the international, attention-grabbing story that Quest University started, he said. The worldwide acknowledgement is thrusting Squamish into the spotlight, Greenfield said.
