Overcrowding, an extra block in high school schedules, a new cell phone ban, big provincial promises, new leadership? Lots has happened in the Burnaby school district in 2024, and the Burnaby NOW is taking a look back.
Overcapacity on opening
The year began with students moving into the new $116.6-million Burnaby North Secondary School.
Before 2024 was up, however, the district was already asking the province for a $29.4-million addition because the school was overcapacity the day it opened.
Enrollment growth and overcrowding, driven by development and an influx of newcomer families, was a major theme running through school stories this year.
The NDP government – no doubt with an eye on the provincial election in October – responded with a flurry of capital funding announcements, including fast-tracked prefabricated additions at Kitchener Elementary, Alpha Secondary and Nelson Elementary.
The province also approved $67.8 million for a brand new, bigger Cameron Elementary after originally approving only an expansion.
But it takes time to build multi-million dollar capital projects, and the district announced it would add an extra block and stagger schedules at four local high schools to address overcrowding in the short term – a move that has raised concerns at the district parent advisory council.
Ch-ch-ch-changes
School district headquarters saw a change in leadership this year, with the retirement of superintendent Gina Niccoli-Moen at the end of March
The district’s new CEO, ex-New Westminster school district superintendent Karim Hachlaf, officially took up Burnaby’s top job on April 1.
Burnaby’s board of education also saw a changing of the guard at the end of 2024, when trustee Bill Brassington, who had served as the board’s chair for two years, passed on the reins of leadership to trustee Kristin Schnider.
A student leader told the school board in May that her peers would “not be very happy” with a province-wide cellphone ban mandated by the provincial government, but the district’s policy generated little public pushback after it was put into effect in July.
Making a splash
Now, school stories don’t usually get as much attention online as they should, but this year burnabynow.com’s fourth most clicked story was about local grads earning a record-breaking $10.8 million dollars in scholarships.
With inflation making it hard to make ends meet in 2024, it was a good news story.
Another story that garnered attention online was less positive.
At the beginning of June, as the war in Palestine raged, the school district got a complaint from a parent about a Grade 6 social studies test in which students were asked to weigh in on Israel’s right to exist.
Some of our favourite school stories, though, are often ones that don’t cause much of a stir online but touch our hearts.
This year, our favourite is a story about a gingerbread fairy forest created by a team of local high school cooking students and dedicated to a beloved great uncle determined to protect his nephew’s sense of wonder.
