The New Westminster school district wants provincial funding to house its alternate education programs in a stand-alone facility.
School District 40 is asking the B.C. Ministry of Education and Child Care for $10 million for a site to house the Royal City Alternate Program (RCAP) and POWER Alternate Secondary School.
The request is part of the district’s $300-million capital plan submission for 2024-25.
The two alternate programs now operate out of leased space at Columbia Square Plaza, with RCAP offering coursework up to Grade 10 and POWER offering grades 10, 11 and 12.
“We want to build a quality, purpose-built standalone space to support vulnerable students and to make sure that they have the amenities that they deserve,” secretary-treasurer Bettina Ketcham said, speaking to the district’s capital plans at the June 20 school board meeting.
The $10-million ask is designed to allow the district to buy and renovate an existing building.
Where should alternate programs go? SD40 weighs options
Ketcham noted the district’s earlier plan was to include the alternate education programs in a separate facility on its existing Fraser River Middle School site at Simcoe Park, where a new elementary school is also planned.
The new elementary school has received approval to move on to the business case stage, but Ketcham said the district has received word that the RCAP/POWER part of the plan will not go forward.
That has the district looking for alternatives to the leased space, where the future is uncertain — particularly given the recent announcement of major development plans for Columbia Square — and where the space doesn’t meet all the program’s needs, she noted.
Ketcham acknowledged the province doesn’t typically provide capital funding for stand-alone facilities for such programs.
“The economics for providing educational facilities for 60 to 75 students is not considered overly economical,” she said, particularly given the level of need across the province.
Parent Kathleen Carlsen questioned whether the alternate programs could be moved into the existing school district offices, with the district moving its offices into other office space.
Board chair Maya Russell said the district faces two challenges: space for small stand-alone alternate programs may not be funded, but school board offices aren’t funded, either. Moving the board offices elsewhere would send the district back into leased space, which would add to its operating budget.
“The school option is potentially fundable; we want to ask for that,” she said. “The first ask (the FRMS site) was denied. We’ll try the second ask. It’s worth a shot.”
Russell said the alternate programs are important, and if the request fails, the district will continue to look at other options.
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