New Tri-City High School proposed for Burke Mountain- David Avenue.
Growing up as baby boomers in the Tri-Cities, you may have attended PoCo High (later, renamed Terry Fox Secondary School), Centennial High School, or Port Moody High.
As the area bloomed, came the rise of Riverside (in Port Coquitlam), Gleneagle and Pinetree Secondary (in Coquitlam, respectively), as well as Heritage Woods (in Coq./Port Moody). Members of Generation X as well as Millennials attended the aforementioned schools.
In addition, there are a number of French immersion and private educational institutes throughout the Tri-Cities.
The Provincial government on Tuesday announced the potential of a new school in Burke Mountain, on the cusp of David Avenue.
The proposed location of the new Tri-City schools.
As noted in the Daily Hive:
In order for the project to be realized, the school district still needs the provincial government’s approval of the yet-to-be-made business case and capital funding, and only then will the new campus proceed to the detailed design and construction stages. The new facility’s estimate cost is $125 million.
“I am excited to see progress on this project. Burke Mountain youth and parents are looking forward to a middle-secondary school in their neighbourhood, which will help ease stress on families,” said Fin Donnelly, NDP MLA for Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, in a statement.
“This is the result of our government’s commitment to improving schools for students and staff, and our strong partnership with both the Coquitlam school board and the City of Coquitlam.”
The development site is a 22-acre lot that is currently treed, located near the southeast corner of the intersection of Coast Meridian Road and David Avenue in the Lower Hyde Creek Village neighbourhood. The school district owns 14 acres that would be used for the middle and secondary school buildings, and the City of Coquitlam owns eight acres.
Initially, there would be one school building, but as enrolment increases a second building would be built as a middle school. The ultimate capacity of the campus is 1,000 students.
The school district’s highly preliminary vision for the design concept calls for the “greenest school in Canada.”
For its part in the project, the municipal government would also build an artificial turf field, athletics track, and public park on the parcel it owns.
There has been growing community pressure for additional school capacity in Burke Mountain, which currently has a population of about 15,000 people. This will eventually grow to 50,000 residents when the neighbourhood is fully built out.