Several years after the BC NDP promised to build a new school to replace École Mission Senior Secondary (MSS), the school remains over capacity and under-funded.
Mission Public Schools Board of Education trustee Shelley Carter wrote a letter to the premier on Wednesday (Jan. 4) on behalf of the board seeking answers on the high school’s lack of funding.
“The students in Mission deserve a new high school,” Carter said in an interview. “I went to the school, and it was in the older stages when I was there and that was 40 years ago.”
The board requested that Premier David Eby reaffirm the province’s $87 million commitment to replace Mission Secondary made during the BC NDP’s 2020 election campaign.
“The replacement of the school is a need that this community has been advocating for over the past five years,” Carter wrote. “This project was previously approved and cancelled last year , creating significant concern for this community.”
READ MORE: BC NDP promise $87 million for new high school in Mission if re-elected
The school board was informed earlier in 2022 that the upgrade and/or full replacement of MSS was deferred indefinitely.
“[We] consider the current government’s not fulfilling commitments made and the approach of deferring and delaying the replacement of critical infrastructure as short-sighted, continuing to neglect the health and usability of BC schools,” Carter said.
The school board says MSS is over capacity due to the influx of people migrating from Vancouver because of housing costs and affordability.
“Because of this shift, many of our elementary schools are over or nearing capacity, and our enrolment has been surpassing the projections in an unprecedented way, feeding more students into MSS than we have seen in the past,” Carter wrote.
The letter questions the status of the Recovery Investment Fund for MSS and when/if funds will be allocated from BC’s “high school replacement project” to the school. The board hopes the MSS replacement returns to the province’s priority list when the budget is released in the spring.
“Districts in our region are getting high schools and elementary schools [built],” Carter said. “We want to be back on that list and we want to be put back on the top of the list.”
@dillon_white
dillon.white@missioncityrecord.com
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