New Surrey elementary school, addition to secondary school coming: B.C.

The BC NDP government says it is moving forward with two new school building projects in Surrey — an entirely new elementary school and an addition to an already-established secondary school.

Minister of Education and Child Care Rachna Singh said Friday the elementary school will be in the city’s Darts Hill area, with Grandview Heights Secondary receiving the addition.

“With nearly 350,000 more people choosing B.C. as their home in the last two and a half years, the province is focused on building services for a growing population,” said Singh. “We are expanding school spaces and will work on acquiring new school sites to support the school district, so we can continue to support Surrey families now and into the future.”

The province explained funding for the two projects is included in its recently tabled 2024 budget.

Laurie Larson, Surrey Board of Education chair, shared that the district has been growing “at a very rapid pace,” averaging over 2,400 new students in the past two years.

“This level of growth underscores the urgent need for investments like this in new schools and expansions. We are very appreciative that these two projects can now move ahead to the business-planning phase, and we look forward to continuing to work with the province to further increase capacity in our district,” she said.

The district has been lobbying the provincial government to fund nine new schools and 16 additions. When asked if more announcements were on the way for the city, Singh shared there are “more capital announcements” to come.

Larson acknowledged that Friday’s announcement falls well short of the district’s asks, and shared, “We expect more coming in the fall.”

The province expects the new elementary school to be operational in four to five years, however Singh says the government is looking into ways to speed up the timeline.