On Monday, October 31st, 2011, Premier Christy Clarke had a press conference at our school and announced the government has released funding for schools in BC. For us at Hazelgrove and in the catchment, it means that the new school located at approximately the corner of 194 Street & 68 Avenue will start construction soon and will hopefully be ready for students by the end of 2013. We also received funding to purchase some land for a future elementary school and a future high school. The last time funding was released to build a school and purchase land was in 2005. That is when the School Board was given funding to construct Hazelgrove Elementary and to purchase the land for the next school. It is 2011 and the School Board has finally received funding to build a school on the land they purchased many years ago. At this rate, the next school will not receive funding to be constructed for another 5-6 years which means that the next elementary school will not be built for another 7-8 years. This year we have over 800 students. With approximately 90 grade 7's leaving and possibly over 130 kindergartens coming, we will start the next school year off with over 850 students. Every year we continue to grow as a school. There are over 200 toddlers in our area. By the time they go to school, both the schools (Hazelgrove & the New School) will be overcrowded again. If they do not release MORE funds, all our current 800 students, along with other schools in the area, will be trying to get filtered into Clayton Heights Secondary which is already overcrowded. What we need to do as a community is to continue to do what you already were doing. Continue to send emails, letters and make phone calls to Kevin Falcon's Office, to Christy Clark's Office and the to the Treasury Board Members. What we require is MORE funding. If we can continue to voice our opinions and let them know that we are STILL overcrowded and we NEED the funding now to build the High School AND the Elementary School then hopefully our children will get another school BEFORE 2018. WHAT WE NEED YOU TO DO: Send MONTHLY emails to Finance Minister Kevin Falcon, Premier Christy Clark and the Treasury Board members, requesting a status update - where are they in the process? Send to: 1) Kevin Falcon, Minister of Finance By Mail Finance Minister and Deputy Premier Kevin Falcon P.O. Box 9041 Stn. Prov. Govt. Victoria, B.C. V8W 9E1 Phone: Victoria: 250-387-3751 Surrey Office: 604 576-3792 Fax: 250-387-5594 Email: kevin.falcon.mla@leg.bc.ca Website: www.kevinfalconmla.bc.ca 2) Premier Christy Clark By Mail: Premier Christy Clark P.O. Box 9041 Stn. Prov. Govt. Victoria, B.C. V8W 9E1 Phone: Victoria: 250-387-1715 Vancouver Office: 604-775-1600 Fax: 250-387-0087 Email: Christy@christyclark.ca or premier@gov.bc.ca Website: www.gov.bc.ca/prem 3) Members of the Treasury Board Email D. Denny for further information |