Connaught Heights Elementary School

Connaught Heights Elementary
Address
2201 London St New Westminster, British Columbia, V3M 3G1, Canada
Information
School number	4040010
School board	School District 40 New Westminster
Principal	Mr. Chris Evans
School type	Public Elementary school
Grades	K-7
Language	English
Mascot	The Hawk
Team name	Connaught Hawks
Colours	Black, Blue, Red
Enrolment	149 (16 January 2006)

Connaught Heights Elementary is a public elementary school in New Westminster, British Columbia part of School District 40 New Westminster.

• Secretary: Mrs Joan Taylor
• Custodian: Mr. Materi
• PAC Chairman: Mrs Machado

Connaught Heights is currently renovating the school as of November 31, 2005, Ordered by Former principal, Mrs Bard Keating. Connaught Heights Elementary will need $568,000 in 2008 to seismically upgrade classrooms, gym and other buildings on site, will also need $2.16 million in 2008 to renovate and upgrade the facility and will need $1.45 million in 2009 for a 0.5- hectare site expansion for undersized school site. Connaught Heights is a community school with 149 K to 7 students. We are proud of our diverse population, which includes 46 ESL students, 14 Aboriginal students, and 11 students with special needs. This year we went through the District Review process that provided us with the opportunity to reflect upon our school goals and accomplishments. We received positive feedback about our use of the performance standards from the external review team. Our use of a K-10 screener, based upon the social responsibility performance standards and Dr. Martin Brokenleg’s Circle of Courage concepts, was considered to be an example of best practice.The plan was unveiled recently and identifies a top-13 capital project "wish list" for the district until 2010.

Funding for both 2006 and 2007 has already been allocated in previous years, meaning that only year 3 of the plan, 2008, is up for Ministry of Education approval. The last two years, 2009 and 2010, will not be approved at this time. Prepared by district secretary-treasurer Doug Wong, the list had to be submitted by Oct. 14. Topping the list is a request for $10.15 million in 2008 and $8.59 million in 2009 for site acquisition for a new west side elementary school, followed by $3.25 million for an addition to Queen Elizabeth to expand capacity from 250 students to 425 students, $3.97 million for renovations at Richard McBride and $3.25 million for a site expansion at John Robson. In total, the district's 2008 requests add up to $20.62 million. Rounding out the list of future requests in 2009 is $4.7 million for renovations to Lord Tweedsmuir, $2.42 million for renovations to Lord Kelvin, $2.6 million for renovations to Connaught Heights and $1.67 million for alterations to F.W. Howay to reduce capacity from 125 to 100 students. The 2009 total, including money for the west side elementary school, is $19.99 million. For 2010, money is requested for five projects. Topping the priority list, not the financial list, is site expansion money, $4.95 million at Queen Elizabeth, $7.15 million at Lord Kelvin, $7.75 million at Herbert Spencer, $3.35 million for Connaught Heights and $1.75 million for Queensborough Middle School. The 2010 requests total $24.95 million. Trustee Michael Ewen was not impressed with several aspects of the capital plan summary, most notably how late the trustees received the information. Trustees only received the report four days before having to vote on it. And because Ewen is opposed to any site expansion that goes into parkland forces the district to buy residential properties and turn them into schools, he voiced opposition nine of the 13 proposals, with support only for the addition to Queen Elizabeth and the renovations at McBride, Robson and Kelvin. "I'm absolutely opposed to site expansion if we're talking about buying people's houses," Ewen said. "I'm not prepared to do that." And Ewen explained his opposition to renovations at Connaught Heights and alterations to F.W. Howay on the grounds that those schools could be better utilized as larger schools. "My view is, we pick a reasonable size (for) an elementary school and reconfigure smaller schools so we don't need a site expansion," Ewen said, adding it made no sense to him to make Howay a smaller school. While trustee Brent Atkinson disagreed with most of Ewen's points, he agreed that trustees should have had more time to assess the summary. "This is a fairly major submission and I certainly would like to look at it in more detail," Atkinson said, adding that, because he was attending a family wedding in Texas, he didn't even get the document until the day of the vote. "I hear your comments about getting the document late," Wong said apologetically, adding that only the 2008 figures would be approved this year, so if trustees needed or wanted to object, they should do so on those four projects for now. "Years 4 and 5 can change. "If we know the numbers (enrollment) will be there, we should put in our requests now," Atkinson replied.Adding another voice was the district's director of operations, Larry Bryce, who said getting a wish list in now is important because, with the city and the district recently passing a school site acquisition charge on new developments in the city, the district has to have a list of properties that need to be acquired or expanded. "If we abandon site expansion, we abandon the school site acquisition charge," Bryce said. By the time the trustees voted, Ewen's pleas fell on deaf ears, as he was the only trustee opposed and Lori Watt abstained, citing the fact she did not have enough time to adequately go over the document.