The Vancouver Board of Education and the University of British Columbia welcomed today’s announcement of provincial funding for two schools that will serve the growing community of UTown@UBC.
Today’s funding will allow for relocation of University Hill Secondary School to the vacant National Research Council (NRC) building on 16thAvenue on the UBC campus, which will be renovated for educational and community purposes. The old secondary school will be demolished and replaced with a new K-8 school. Both schools will be designed to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification
“The Vancouver Board of Education welcomes this unique and exciting opportunity to work in partnership with UBC to create progressive, engaging schools for the UBC community,” said Vancouver Board of Education Chairperson Patti Bacchus.
“We envision an interconnected set of facilities that will accommodate a continuum of learning,” Bacchus said. “Our partnership with UBC will enable our schools to extend educational programming to expand students’
learning opportunities.”
“This funding caps off a three-way partnership with the Board of Education and the Province of BC to assist UBC in building a complete, sustainable community on the UBC campus,” said UBC President Stephen Toope. “The schools meet a crucial need for the parents who have made a choice to live where they work and study.
“UBC is already Canada’s university sustainability leader,” Toope said.
“Having a school on campus will further decrease car traffic, which we have already reduced 18 per cent since 1997, and eliminate the need for school-aged children who live on the UBC campus to take buses to more
distant schools.”
Toope added that proximity of the new schools to the campus would allow for exciting research partnership opportunities with UBC’s Faculty of
Education.
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