Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

NEW SCHOOL NEEDED

Sun Peaks looking at future of community education

May 3, 2019 | 5:12 PM

SUN PEAKS, B.C. — Sun Peaks is one of the fastest growing communities in the region.

Since the elementary school there first opened for the 2010-2011 season with 18 students, the resort municipality has since added a full-time health centre, with plans to build a multi-million dollar multipurpose civic facility in the coming year.

As the community has grown, more and more families have moved there, increasing the elementary school population almost to its full capacity; plans are in motion to expand those facilities in the short term while looking at options for a permanent school building meant to fill the needs of the residents for years to come.

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“We’re getting up to over 100 students in elementary and around 30 at the moment in (Grades) 8 to 12, so rapid growth,” president of the Sun Peaks Education Society Maria Cannon told CFJC Today. “There’s just rapid growth, and we’re seeing more and more families moving to the community.”

Which is why the Sun Peaks Parent Advisory Council and the Sun Peaks Education Society teamed up earlier this year and made a presentation to the School Board, asking that two portables be added to the elementary school to help accommodate the increase in population.

“Sun Peaks Elementary is actually operating [at] 200 per cent over capacity right now,” Cannon explained. “The additional space that we really need is to have more room for the students, also for the teachers and administration staff.”

SD 73 Board of Education Chair Kathleen Karpuk met with Sun Peaks Mayor and Council Friday to speak about both the short-term educational needs, as well as plans for a K-12 school in the community.

“As part of our discussions, we’ve actually struck a committee to look at the short-term solutions to the enrolment growth that’s happening,” Karpuk explained. “We’re also working on having a steering committee formed to look at the long-term vision for a school, K to 12.”

It was three weeks ago that a $34.5 million expansion was announced at Valleyview Secondary, fulfilling the most pressing capital funding need in the district. With that project off the list an onto the books, Karpuk says the board is looking around the region to identify future funding needs.

“This is part of that process,” Karpuk said. “It’s getting into those communities, talking to Mayor and Council both here in Sun Peaks and Kamloops to find out where some of the pressures are, where the growth is happening in the municipalities, so that when we’re going forward with our capital plan, we’re putting in schools where there’s growth, so we’re more likely to get that funding.”

Securing the future for young families in Sun Peaks, and paving the way for more community growth in the future.