Nanaimo’s school board is looking for public input on how to deal with an overflow of students at Nanaimo District Secondary School.
Designed for 1,400 students, the school currently has just under 1,700. School board chair Greg Keller said the goal is to limit the school to 1,500 students or less, which will require the movement of programs, catchments or feeder schools.
Five options have been put forward, and the public consultation process will run until Feb. 28, with a report to be completed in March.
“It probably won’t take us long to gather all of the information,” said district spokesperson Dale Burgos.
Options include:
• Students graduating from Gabriola Elementary on Gabriola Island, which has 143 kindergarten-Grade 7 students, attend Cedar Secondary rather than Nanaimo District Secondary School.
• Nanaimo District Secondary School’s sports academies are moved to John Barsby Secondary for September 2024.
• Students who transfer out of French immersion or an academy go to their catchment school.
• Add up to five more portables to the six already in place at Nanaimo District Secondary School.
• Expand Nanaimo District Secondary School by 100 seats, and expand Wellington Secondary by 100 seats.
Burgos said the consultation is part of a long-range facilities plan established in 2021 to look at capacity in all schools.
Nanaimo District Secondary School is the district’s biggest school and has been “busting at the seams,” he said.
The school dates back to the 1960s and has one of the highest seismic risks in the district, Burgos said. “For years and years we’ve been asking for a replacement or a seismic upgrade.”
Jessica Krog-Irving, who chairs the Nanaimo-Ladysmith District Parent Advisory Council, has two children at Nanaimo District Secondary School — a daughter in Grade 10 French immersion and a son in Grade 8 in lacrosse academy — as well as a son at elementary school.
She said if sports academies are moved out of the school, she could end up with all three kids at different schools.
“Everyone agrees that there’s a massive issue, something needs to be done,” Krog-Irving said, adding parents favouring different options at NDSS have agreed to not speak out against each other or point fingers.
The ideal solution would be for the provincial government to realize that NDSS is in serious need of funding for at least an upgrade, said Krog-Irving, whose group has been part of discussions about the long-range facilities plan.
All options on the table come with their own issues, she said, such as adding more portables.
“It doesn’t really change the fact that we’re at capacity,” she said. “It doesn’t help with students not being able to access gym time or foods programs.”
The prospect of Gabriola Elementary students going to Cedar Secondary has generated the biggest response among the scenarios put forward, Burgos said.
Gabriola Island students take a ferry ride and are then bused to Nanaimo District Secondary School, he said.
Burgos said some parents are concerned that the bus ride to Cedar Secondary is slightly longer than the one to Nanaimo District Secondary School. “We’ve heard a lot from the Gabriola families.”
The public can provide feedback through an online survey on the ThoughtExchange platform and through email. Both links are on the Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools website at https://www.sd68.bc.ca.
Burgos said there have been “hundreds and hundreds” of survey responses and many emails so far.
One survey response says it would be hard on students to have to transfer from the high school they are already attending to go to a different one, while another points out that Gabriola students also have public transportation available to them if they are at NDSS — something that is important if they spend time after class involved in extracurricular activities.
An online information session was held Tuesday and an in-person session was held Feb. 16 at Gabriola Elementary.
