Queen Elizabeth Elementary School families got their first look at the school’s coming expansion last night — and the early reviews are cautiously positive.
School District 40 hosted an information session at the Queensborough school last night to present concept plans for the $20-million, 325-student expansion that was announced in June 2021.
The two-storey addition includes 13 classrooms, a multipurpose room and space for before-and-after-school child care. The floor plan reflects similar design elements seen in the district’s newest schools, Skwo:wech Elementary and New Westminster Secondary, with glass-walled classrooms grouped around collaborative learning spaces, rather than a traditional corridor layout.
The expansion will be connected to the existing school with an enclosed, five-metre-long breezeway.
Glass-walled classrooms raise concerns for parents
For parents Bernadette Gourlay and Josie Johnston, the idea of glass-walled classrooms didn’t sit well.
Both worried that younger children might be too easily distracted if they could see into the common areas, and Gourlay raised the question of what would happen in the event of a lockdown or shelter-in-place situation.
Johnston suggested frosting some of the glass might help alleviate those concerns.
Both also worried about an existing service lane next to the school being opened up as parking lot access.
But their biggest disappointment came from learning that, even with the expansion, the school will continue to serve students only up to Grade 4.
Currently, all other elementary schools in the district serve kindergarten to Grade 5. Because of space constraints at Queen Elizabeth, Grade 5 students go to neighbouring Queensborough Middle School — and that won’t change even when the expansion opens.
“I just think that is so ridiculous,” Gourlay said. “Someone needed to advocate for the Grade 5s way back in the beginning.”
In general, however, both agreed the expansion is a positive for the school in the fast-growing neighbourhood.
“I think they absolutely need it. They’ve been needing it for years,” Johnston said.
Gourlay agreed, giving the overall project her tentative approval.
“I’m kind of cautious,” she said. “I’m cautiously optimistic, is where I land.”
Principal Paul Manville, meanwhile, was beaming.
“I love it. I’m really excited about it all,” he said. “This is something our community has been wanting for so, so long.”
Manville said the existing school will continue to house students in the younger grades because it makes the most sense to do so. The current kindergarten area, for instance, has separate washrooms for the smallest students, and it will remain the kindergarten area.
Students in the older grades that are currently housed in portables will move into the expansion.
Manville acknowledged that some of the school’s wishes — such as a larger, full-size gym — weren’t possible within the expansion’s budget. But he said the new multipurpose space will be a bonus for the entire school and will be used by everyone, not just the divisions with classrooms in the new space.
“It’ll be really nice to have some newness and some open spaces,” he said.
Parent, staff feedback will help 'tweak' school design
Dave Crowe, the school district’s director of capital projects, said all the feedback from parents and staff will be taken into account as the plans are further developed.
He noted the plans being presented to parents are still at the concept stage, and the district isn’t quite as far along in the process as it had hoped to be before presenting to the community — but, with summer break looming, time was of the essence.
“We really, really wanted to get this out to the public and out to the staff before the end of the school year,” he said. “We hope this is pretty much what it will be, with some tweaks.”
Crowe pointed out the expansion is built to reflect the current approach to teaching and learning, with “visible learning” at the core of the design.
He acknowledged the concerns over the glass-walled classrooms and said that, in the end, there will likely be less glass than is currently pictured in the designs — primarily for cost reasons.
It’s not yet known when shovels will be in the ground, but the district is targeting a January 2024 opening — provided, as school district superintendent Karim Hachlaf cautioned, nothing unexpected comes up over the next school year, as it has over the past few years.
Crowe said the district will try to move that timeline up even farther, with an eye on opening in September 2023 “in a perfect world.”
Expansion will help 'future-proof' Queensborough school space
School board chair Gurveen Dhaliwal, who attended Queen Elizabeth Elementary School in her own childhood, said plans for the expansion are even better than she’d hoped.
“I am very excited. This is a long time coming,” she said.
Dhaliwal pointed out there were portables at the school even when she attended and said the expansion will help with “future-proofing” school space in the neighbourhood.
“It’s going to support Queensborough students for years to come,” she said.
She’s excited that the designs call for large classrooms of 70 square metres (750 square feet) each. She also appreciates the open space and natural light, and the collaborative spaces that better reflect how teaching works in a modern school — just as they do in NWSS and Skwo:wech.
“I think the new schools reflect the new curriculum and how it is that we do teaching,” she said.
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