Senior staff and trustees will continue grappling with ways to reduce the number of students attending NDSS. (File Photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

more outreach

‘We hear the community:’ school board scraps displacement of Gabriola Island students

Mar 30, 2023 | 12:24 PM

NANAIMO — Addressing mounting capacity crunch issues at Nanaimo District Secondary School (NDSS) won’t involve busing Gabriola Island students away.

Following a month-long consultation process, Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools staff and trustees heard decisive opposition to the idea of students on Gabriola attending Cedar Secondary instead of NDSS, which could have been enacted as early as this September.

“We hear the community and it’s clear that Gabriola does not want to have their kids go to Cedar for 450 reasons plus,” trustee Mark Robinson said during a Wednesday, March 29 board meeting.

An amended motion tabled by Robinson to exclude the idea as part of future discussions was unanimously endorsed.

Busing in the range of 70 to 100 Gabriola Island students was one of several options pitched to lessen an ever-rising student head count well clear of 1,600 attending 71-year-old NDSS.

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The facility, built for 1,400 students, is the lead item on the District’s capital investment requests for the Ministry of Education to fund.

Trustees agreed with a staff report authored by secretary-treasurer Mark Walsh to trigger more consultations on how to reduce the number of students attending the deteriorating Wakesiah Ave. facility.

Walsh expanded on the value of having additional time to analyze the problem from some different perspectives.

While students and parents are passionate about being in the NDSS community home to a variety of specialty programs, Walsh said what’s not clear is how students and staff feel about their learning conditions.

“Maybe 1,800 people want a kind of run down school with 22 portables while they wait for something bigger or new — so maybe that is what people are looking for, so we do want a little more time to go get that information,” Walsh said.

District 68 trustees discussing capacity issues at NDSS during a Wednesday, March 29 board meeting. (Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools)

Other options considered by the District during its recent outreach effort included shuffling sports academies out of NDSS to John Barsby Secondary School, which also met opposition.

Board chair Greg Keller said it’s important to shift the capacity challenge at NDSS from a perceived District problem to the public to help resolve.

“I think it is going to take a community to come up with a solution that makes sense for everybody,” he said.

Walsh reminded trustees of other capacity issues in District 68, primarily their burgeoning north-end schools.

Despite a recent expansion of Dover Bay Secondary, Walsh said the school will be over-capacity again soon, while Wellington Secondary is also over-subscribed.

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ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes