Proposed School Boundary Revisions

The proposed boundary change is illogical and profoundly disruptive to our communities. We strongly encourage the school board to drop it.

We STRONGLY DISAGREE with the boundary changes! The school board is dishonest!

My family and I are STRONGLY OPPOSED to the proposed catchment boundary changes in general and especially for McRoberts. The proposal change is a huge decision that will affect so many lives and families in the community. It is TOO RUSHED! It needs a much longer period of consultation with much clearer communication and transparency. We were given a very short notice and feel deeply disrespected. We feel that our voices are not heard, and the school board simply pushes their agenda and turns a deaf to our concerns. We feel that the school board is not completely honest and we are continuously misinformed and misled. We strongly feel that the school board is not representing the interest of the community and have betrayed our trust!

We strongly disagree with this proposal.

Page 111 - 9.5.2 (c) The district may consider the possibility of maintaining the split feeder flow from the west portion of Westwind catchment which currently flows to McMath Secondary.
“Continued enrolment intake from the west portion of Westwind elementary catchment may ensure that the size of the regular program at McMath secondary remains sustainable and well balanced with the French immersion program”.

This does give us some hope that this is not a done deal which so many people are saying. We do hope you will consider some of the points raised by concerned parents when deciding on the future of these children and youth.

Thank you for your consideration

Title LRFP Community of Schools Regions? In some cases, we can see this being about school geography but when a family can see the school from a bedroom window and it takes only 7 minutes to walk there, not even having to cross a road (green space) this focus is not on the Learner. Steveston-London is an entirely different catchment, community and neighbourhood.

McMath / Westwind / McMath to Steveston-London
My wife and I strongly oppose this proposed boundary change that will affect those students who will attend Westwind Elementary and live on the west side of Railway Ave. The secondary school is often the ‘center’ of the neighbourhood. McMath is in the community of Steveston, Steveston-London is not! We have reviewed the pertinent parts of the almond Range Facilities Plan to try and make sense of the above proposed change. We were incredibly disappointed to come across the following reasoning, "The purpose of the school boundary revision is to remove the current Westwind split feeder catchment". This statement does not align with your Vision, Mission or Goals statements.

My family and I ARE STRONGLY OPPOSED regarding closure of McRoberts. There are rumours that the school board is trying to close this school. I read about it on Richmond News months ago and I was expecting more information to be brought up but no, nothing. The information is not transparent to the parents. Why do we have to do all the research instead of the school board sending us the info. To make my comment short: There's no reason to close McRoberts.

The district is dishonest about the plans and not stating correctly the reasons for catchment area change for MacRoberts and McNair schools. In the short document with the maps it just stating that kids for the English path (as McNair does not have an Immersion path) within a specific area would be moved to McNair. It does not say anything about the future plans for McRoberts. It also says that for the next year only new students will be enrolled in the new catchment area. In the LRFP, however, it clearly says that that French Immersion kids will be moved to Palmer if McRoberts will be closed. This suggests my younger son would need to attend Palmer. If right now it takes him 10 min to walk to school - to get to Palmer he will need to take a bus. I think he really would like to graduate from the same school his brother and sister did (one graduated 3 years ago and another this year). School its not just a building - its community, traditions, friendship. Why destroy it?

My family & I are strongly opposed with the proposed boundary changes for McMath Secondary. Our kids currently attend Westwind Elementary even though we live much closer to Byng. If these proposed changes go through, instead of a short walk to school, they'll be expected to commute 3.5 km to Steveston-London. My understanding is that one of the reasons why McMath is at capacity is because of out of catchment French Immersion students - that is unfair to families that purchase or rent homes to be in the McMath catchment. A move to Steveston-London creates new concerns including environmental. This could dramatically increase the carbon footprint for families in the area. 3.5 km is too far to expect kids to safely walk or bike every day, especially during winter months. This is going to lead to even more families using their cars when driving would be unnecessary if kids could simply attend their neighbourhood school. Please reconsider.

I agree with the other parents. You need to give parents more time to prepare for moves and arrangements. Some of us have preference as to which school we want our kids to be in and/or had already purchased or moved to the new home to accomodate to the existing boundaries. Some of us put commute in mind when we moved and you suddenly proposing these changes and saying this needs to happen within a year is unreasonable.

I strongly oppose the proposed boundary changes for McRoberts and McNair. How did the school district miscalculate so badly on the school infrastructure requirements to require shutting another school? Something doesn’t make sense. I grew up in Richmond and over the next 10 years a lot of first generation Richmondites will be making room for younger families. There are several new construction projects converting 40 year old single-family residences into higher density townhouses in our catchment. This will further increase the population of students as these properties are marketed to young families. I think excluding international students and adult students from your numbers doesn’t make sense. I think your long-term numbers are off and if they are, this is a catastrophic error of judgement. McRoberts has a fantastic school community and splintering the school will disrupt sports teams, friendships, and important academic ties. I think we should go back to school on this one.

I believe that the school board has a devious plan to slowly reduce the number of students attending McRoberts so that it is easier to justify closing the school in September 2021 as stated in the Long Range Facilities Plan. As stated in the LRF plan a potential consolidation of McNair and English McRoberts catchments may become possible if the French Immersion Program at McRoberts moves to Palmer. The proposed boundary revision conveniently redirects English students to McNair when there is adequate space to accommodate them at McRoberts. Let’s stop the proposed boundary revisions, stop the strategic reduction of McRoberts' student population and be honest with parents about the purpose of this boundary revision.

I am strongly opposed to the proposed boundary changes to the McRoberts catchment area and feel that the school board is being dishonest in how they are presenting the proposal. I realize that students currently in the catchment area will not affected. The bigger question is why would the school board inform a student who has just moved into the neighbourhood south of Steveston Highway that they must walk past McRoberts to attend McNair? Why would students on Williams road across, across from Whiteside and within visible distance of McRoberts be told they are to attend McNair? If my family moved into our house located in the Saunders area, my three children who are currently attending McRoberts would be asked to walk 20 minutes to McNair instead of the 6 minute walk down a designated pedestrian path to McRoberts? Perhaps the school board has a more devious plan to slowly reduce the number of students attending McRoberts so that it is easier to close the school in September 2021?

I strongly oppose the proposed boundary changes for McRoberts and McNair. We are currently 500m which is a 5 minute walk from McRoberts. With the proposed boundary changes my kids would have to walk 1.4km which would takes 17 minutes. How does that possibly make sense to have kids go further away to school when there is a perfectly viable option that is closer? Many working parents who have more than 1 child rely on older siblings to help with the pick up and drop off of younger children. With the proposed boundary changes this would become much more difficult as instead of walking across the parking lot from McRoberts to Whiteside my younger child would be left unattended for much longer as my older child makes the trek from McNair. I believe these proposed boundary changes will have a negative effect on many families in the Whiteside and McRoberts catchment and I hope that our concerns are heard and considered before any rash decisions are made.

I am STRONGLY OPPOSED to the proposed McMath Steveston-London boundary changes. I cannot comprehend how these proposed changes are beneficial to the students. Our son is a student at Homma Elementary. We recently purchased a home South of Garry street as it is directly between our elementary school Homma and high school McMath (within McMath catchment, to which my son's friends at Homma will be attending.) Intentionally we purchased here so that our son could get to McMath on foot or bike in minutes, and come home for lunch (shorter travel time than from within the Homma catchment, which also goes to McMath.) We only purchased here once we knew he would be able to continue on to McMath with his friends from Homma. We have strong ties with our friends, the Homma/McMath/Steveston community and surrounding greenspace. I am absolutely blown away that my son could now have to bus 4 km to Steveston London, an area entirely foreign to him, when we live minutes from McMath.

I posted this in the McMath section but I also see much opposition stated in this main page as well.
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.

I agree to the aim of “reducing the number of major road crossings for students’ safety concern, but I STRONGLY OPPOSED to this revision because such revision will increase the number of major road crossings 3 TIMES than the current secondary school. This is TOTALLY VIOLATED to the purpose stated for implementing this boundary revision.

I agree to the aim to reduce the number of major road crossings for students’ safety, but I TOTALLY OPPOSED this nonsense revision. We live on Grandy street which is just a block away (1 major road crossing) from Richmond High. However, after the revision, my son will have to go to Steveston-London which is 3 blocks away (3 major road crossings). This makes ABSOLUTELY NO sense since this clearly violates its own purpose stated for implementing this boundary revision!

I disagree with having a large portion of Woodward catchment be given to McNeely. Hamilton is the next closest elementary school to McNeely and they are close to their maximum capacity so why not take from them? The distance to travel to McNeely for the current Woodward household would be longer so commuting would be longer and would also increase in the carbon footprint. Many residents purchased their current home due to the closeness of the elementary and high school. I also feel the school district did not do enough to get public feedback. Having a couple of public sessions and then a massive long range facilities document that is not easy to read (I tried) does not give the public enough information on the rational of these decisions. I still don’t understand why the change has to happen. I strongly disagree and hope the school district will rethink and gain more feedback. Thanks.

I totally cannot comprehend why the proposed revision on catchment for our community from McMath to Steveston London is even considered, thus my strong opposition. My son can view his school from his bedroom window, and within just a 2-minute walk, he is already in school. The convenience and ease of going to and from school is a big part to his mental and physical well-being and I can say this for sure on behalf of other students who lives within a walking distance from their school. Without having to cross a street or with minimal road crossing and without need to take the bus or ride a vehicle contributes to our kids' safety and saves family from travel costs and time. In a bigger picture, we minimize transit and helps the environment. I truly hope that this boundary revisions plan will be carefully revisited taking into considerations all community inputs with the purpose of serving the best interest of our kids.