Proposed School Boundary Revisions - McMath

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The Richmond School District has recommended 2 boundary changes for McMath. The purpose of a school boundary change is to reflect the regional strategy contained in the Long Range Facilities Plan. It is important to note that families that have a child currently attending McMath will:

  • not be affected by the boundary change,
  • have the choice to remain in their current catchment or transfer to their newly proposed catchment,
  • have the choice to enrol any siblings in their current catchment or their newly proposed catchment.

Who is affected?

  • As of September 2020, all new students living in an adjusted catchment area will be part of the newly formed catchment.

The proposed boundary changes can be found in the “Document Library” section on the right-hand side of this page.

If you have any feedback, please respond by November 15, 2019 by providing your comments online or by submitting written feedback to the school office. All comments will be considered prior to the Board of Education making a decision on the proposed boundary changes on December 11, 2019.

The Richmond School District has recommended 2 boundary changes for McMath. The purpose of a school boundary change is to reflect the regional strategy contained in the Long Range Facilities Plan. It is important to note that families that have a child currently attending McMath will:

  • not be affected by the boundary change,
  • have the choice to remain in their current catchment or transfer to their newly proposed catchment,
  • have the choice to enrol any siblings in their current catchment or their newly proposed catchment.

Who is affected?

  • As of September 2020, all new students living in an adjusted catchment area will be part of the newly formed catchment.

The proposed boundary changes can be found in the “Document Library” section on the right-hand side of this page.

If you have any feedback, please respond by November 15, 2019 by providing your comments online or by submitting written feedback to the school office. All comments will be considered prior to the Board of Education making a decision on the proposed boundary changes on December 11, 2019.

Guest Book

Please feel free to provide any comments or feedback regarding the proposed school catchment revisions: 

CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.

Please look at a map (e.g. google maps satellite) the West of Railway, East of Fentiman Pl. area.
There are beautiful grassy & tree lined greenspace/bike paths on BOTH the South and North side of this area, safety bringing students from their subdividions to McMath, a large percentage of whom without having to cross a single road. Those who do have to cross a road, it is merely a quiet neighbourhood street. These beautiful paths are not only safer, they foster a connection to the environment, health and community. There is NO SAFE PATHWAY taking students from the McMath area to Steveston London without crossing numerous busy 4-laned streets, and countless house driveways, any of which could have a car backing out as our children are feverishly trying to bike the 3 km to school. Are we not trying to reduce our carbon footprint as a society? I fear those most affected by these proposed boundary changes are silently unaware. Please rethink these proposed changes.

TW over 4 years ago
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Please be ABSOLUTELY SURE to include wording, that if these proposed McMath Steveston London boundary changes go through, that ALL elementary students living West of Railway/East of Fentiman, currently attending McMath feeder elementary schools such as HOMMA, will have the CHOICE of going on to McMath, as promised by the Richmond School Board office when our (Homma) school administrator and McMath were kind enough to contact the School Board office yesterday/Nov12. The psychological distress for 3 years (in our case) of not knowing, of having to rely on approval of a cohort transfer form, when a house was purposely purchased within McMath catchment, then boundaries changed, is inhumane. Not only would our son have to bus 3 km to Steveston-London, an area entirely foreign to him, he would not know a single person. Every single one of his friends from Homma would be walking/biking/driving past his house to get to McMath. I cannot even start to describe what that would be like.

TW over 4 years ago
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I STRONGLY OPPOSE the proposed McMath London-Steveston boundary revisions. When we moved to the McMath catchment South of Garry street, we counted 28 basketball nets on our little loop, that also backs onto greenspace and the Steveston bike path. Nearby houses back onto the grassy fields of Steveston community park, Japanese cultural centre, educational gardens, Steveston community centre and pool. Being minutes from McMath, this is an incredibly safe and kid friendly area. It saddens me that the demographics of highly sought after area will likely change if the secondary catchment is changed from McMath, which is a short (minutes), safe walk or bike ride away, to Steveston London which is 3+km, 30-60 minute commute across several busy and potentially dangerous streets, including Steveston Highway. This once vibrant, kid & teen friendly area, will likely lose it's lure and luster to families, and sadly the basketball nets will fall silent. Please don't change the boundaries.

TW over 4 years ago
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Removed by moderator.

TW over 4 years ago
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I strongly oppose, as do all of the comments below, the proposed changes to the McMath catchment. You will read recurring reasons in all the comments because of how fundamental and important they are. Our children grew up in this neighborhood, can walk less than 5 min to McMath, have community centered around the greenspace but all that is up in the air and being replaced with an hour of commute daily by transit. My child grew up in Homma, and we moved into the Westwind catchment only after knowing that he could stay with his friends in Homma, and continue with them into McMath. His community is both with the people and the place we occupy, not 4 km away with entirely unfamiliar people and environment.

Please reconsider these catchment changes for McMath.

Eric over 4 years ago
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I STRONGLY OPPOSE the proposal to revise the McMath catchment area. According to the doc: "The purpose of this school boundary revision is to remove the current Westwind Elementary split-feeder catchment." However, there are MANY families in the "west of Railway Avenue and east of Fentiman Place, south of Steveston Highway" who attend a variety of OTHER SD38 elementary schools and live in close proximity to McMath. It is completely illogical that the boundary would be revised based on ONE feeder elementary school and not by living in close proximity to McMath. We can hear the McMath bell from our home and our children have a 5-minute walk to McMath. Those of us in this proposed area should NOT have to drive/bus our children to SLSS when they could ALL easily walk to McMath. Bad for families, bad for the environment, bad to spilt up teenagers/families who live in one area/neighbourhood. PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE BOUNDARIES!!!

Losflores over 4 years ago
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I STRONGLY oppose the McMath catchment proposal. We purposely moved to Klahanie Co-op so my daughter could safely walk to high school. As a single mother is would be a massive inconvenience to have to drive out of my way every day to get her to school. Never mind the fact that she would be able to come home for lunch or is there was an emergency. Will the school board pay for my missed hours of work when I have to leave early to pick her up??

lpmckinney over 4 years ago
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I can not believe that you are asking students who literally have McMath in their back yard to travel to another high school. It makes no sense whatsoever. There are 3 large housing complexes that back onto McMath’s field allowing students to walk to school which would also be environmentally sustainable. Often students who attend a French school are from another catchment area. Could the French program at McMath be moved to another high school nearby?

Janet T over 4 years ago
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We live in Klahanie Co-op which is directly behind McMath - this is a two minute walk to school. The school board is proposing that my son will now have to travel by bus daily to a school blocks and across many busy streets. This proposed change is ridiculous and I am completely opposed to our complex being included in this change.

CFoxwell over 4 years ago
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I strongly oppose the the McMath Secondary catchment proposal. We live west of Railway Ave. Instead of 9-min walk to McMath, our 2 kids will have to budget for close to 30-minute bus trip (walking, waiting, and traffic times) to Steveston-London Secondary. This is a terrible waste of time. I strongly believe the area west of Railway Ave and south of Steveston Hwy should still be going to McMath Secondary.

james_a over 4 years ago
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I strongly oppose this plan to move the 100's of families /homes bound by McMath, Garry Street, Railway Ave and Steveston Highway currently under McMath catchment over to Steveston London. It would take the kids in my family from having to walk a few minutes to McMath, to a commute of about 3 km each way to Steveston London with multiple crossings on the way. I do not agree with the rationale of "reducing" the number of split feeder school, this is being proposed at the cost of inconveniencing so many students and families. In this age as we train our children to rely on "local" to reduce our environmental footprint, this is a bad example. Every time our children step out of our home, can see McMath school literally backdoor, but have to communte to Steveston-London, they are going to feel somebody in our community really does not understand the notion of being local. Not all split-feeders can be avoided, why subject these kids? I sincerely hope somebody rethinks this proposal.

Surjit Dixit over 4 years ago
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We have 3 children at home, the oldest entering high school next year. McMath is literally steps away from our back gate and we took comfort knowing our children would have the security and assurance of being so close to our home at Klahanie Cooperative during their formative high school years. The proposed revision would mean our children lose that special link to home and to their community. It means the school where they all learned to ride their bicycles at, where we like to play catch during the summer months at, will not be a part of their teenage years. In addition, the revision would take us from a zero emission daily commute to a 6 kilometer round trip by car, needlessly adding to the morning traffic. Indeed, transit is an option but we are not comfortable with sending our children on their own to Steveston-London by bus especially during their first years. I respectfully ask The District to consider the negative impact such a change would have on families such as ours.

Jeremiah Garcia over 4 years ago
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I strongly disagree with the McMath catchment proposal. We live a few houses away and it is a 2 min walk to McMath. Instead of my kids walking 2 min to school, we will have to drive or have them bus to Steveston-London. Why should we be penalized with the new catchment boundaries and forcing us to go farther than necessary. It is ridiculous that instead of having my kids Walk 2 minutes to and from school, they will need to plan 20 to 30 min walk to school each way. In my opinion the boundary proposal is unfair for those living between Fentiman Pl and West of Railway. We bought our house 7 years ago with a plan for our kids to attend McMath. Our house has always been in the McMath catchment at time of purchase. Had we wanted our kids to attend Steveston-London, we would have bought in that area instead of McMath. This was definately not thought out properly.

tlam over 4 years ago
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I do not understand how moving the physical/geographical location of McMath & moving it to Steveston/London makes any sense. Mc Math field is bordered by 3 complexes. 1 BC housing & 1 co-op. Why, knowing the socio economic demographic of children (including my own) who live less than 20ft from Mc Maths field (not even a road to cross!!!!) would you force these kids to commute 3 kilometers to and from school everyday. You say these boundaries are being revised to “reduce the number of road crossings” this is not the case for the many many children surrounding McMaths field. In fact you are doing exactly the opposite, taking a commute of zero road crossings & increasing it to a commute with 9 (9!!!) road crossings! I strongly encourage you to revise this proposed revision.

Amykoop over 4 years ago
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I do not agree with the McMath catchment proposal. We have specifically planned our house purchase and future plans in this catchment in order for the kids to go to McMath from Homma. We literally live 100 yards away from the school and it makes no logical sense to use the geographic area that is closest to the school as the boundary. This actually negatively impacts the most number of families. Please re-consider.

Damian G over 4 years ago
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Page published: 20 Oct 2019, 03:43 PM