Burnaby School District considers high-school schedule changes

On Friday, Oct. 18, Burnaby School District released a statement about possible scheduling changes that may be implemented next school year. The proposed changes involve increasing scheduling blocks by one additional block per day to accommodate increased enrollment. 

According to Karim Hachlaf, superintendent of the Burnaby School District, the changes are due to increased enrollment and insufficient capacity. 

“The pace of growth at many of our high schools is such that we can’t wait to build ourselves out of the capacity issues we are immediately facing,” Hachlaf said in the statement. “That’s why we’re looking at the possibility of changing the format of the school day for next fall by adding an additional block for classes that would increase capacity by allowing students’ schedules to be staggered.” 

On Oct. 17, the school principals of Alpha, Moscrop, Burnaby Central, Burnaby North, and Burnaby Mountain secondary schools sent a letter informing students’ families of possible changes. The superintendent released a statement after the district received media inquiries after the letter was leaked to the mainstream media. The school district said the changes are still under consideration, and nothing has been decided yet.

“We’re looking to keep change to a minimum and are considering adjusting the start and end time of school to create space for one more block. We are looking at students continuing to attend four blocks of classes, with an additional fifth block available for scheduling. This fifth block would increase capacity within the building by allowing the possibility of students’ schedules to be staggered depending on their classes,” said the letter sent out to the families. 

Hachlaf’s statement also mentioned the possibility of adding new student spaces. 

“We were pleased to have an addition approved in September by the Ministry of Education and Child Care for one of our high schools, Alpha Secondary,” he said. 

The Burnaby School District is not currently giving interviews, and the story is still developing.

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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