Kwantlen Park Secondary has received funding for additional space to address over-crowding, with the school running over capacity, the province announced Thursday (March 9) morning.
The new space will include a 20-classroom addition, which will bring indoors students who have been learning in one of the school’s 20 portables. School capacity is 1,200 students but the facility currently has more than 1,500 enrolled.
The additional space will increase the school’s capacity to 1,700 students.
“A lot of the time, they make new schools but they don’t make them big enough, we see this time and time again” said Kevin Kelly, who was at the announcement on behalf of his wife, Kwantlen First Nation Chief Marilyn Gabriel.
“Today is a happy day.”
KFN and Katzie First Nation members shared prayer songs to welcome the community to the school during the announcement.
Grade 9 student Arabella Garcia said she is “thankful” that more space will be coming to her school, especially because she has been learning in portables.
“I feel isolated in portables… there is no easy access to washrooms,” she said, adding that she and her classmates are excited to be a part of the school community instead of being separated from it.
Minister of Education and Child Care Rachna Singh said that the investment was made in hopes of keeping up with growing enrolment throughout the district.
“We all know that Surrey is growing rapidly (and) schools are the heart of our community,” Singh said, adding that the additional space will also create room for more child-care services.
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