New $67M Cameron Elementary School to replace the old one

The BC government recently announced that it will provide funding for new student spaces and expansions at two Burnaby schools. In a press release from July 31, the province announced that the $75.1M in funding will add 550 new student spaces to Burnaby within the next three years. 

The statement said the province is providing $67M to build an entirely new Cameron Elementary School, which will adhere to current seismic safety standards. The project is part of an ongoing provincial program to upgrade Burnaby schools to be seismically safe. 

“Over the past seven years, the Province has continued to invest significantly in new, expanded, and seismically safer schools in Burnaby with more than $267.7 million committed to projects in the Burnaby School District,” the statement said. 

According to Ishver Khunguray, secretary treasurer of the Burnaby School District, Cameron Elementary School is currently above capacity. The school’s standard capacity is 320 students, but Khunguray said it currently accommodates around 520 students. The district has added temporary structures for the extra students. 

The new school will add 425 student spaces, bringing Cameron’s total capacity to 770 students. According to enrolment projections, the new Cameron Elementary will provide enough space for students until 2031. The new school will be designed to allow for future expansions beyond that date. 

“We did what’s called a long-range facilities plan last year. Last April, we finalized that and published a report that looked at enrolment projections up to 15 years out. So that report identified that we need the school to get to 770 in the next few years,” Khunguray said. “Longer term, with all the development happening in the area, we’re expecting to have future expansions because there’s going to be a fairly large population coming to the area with all the development of condos and things like that.” 

The school is still a few years away; the design process alone will take over a year, and construction will take even longer. The school district has yet to find an architectural firm to take on the design. 

“We’re in the process of selecting an architect to lead us through that process, and the process can take about a year and a half. Ultimately, when we have that process completed, we need to have the ministry approve what we’re going to be building,” Khunguray told the Beacon. “So right now, the timeline has construction starting in the spring of 2026, so that would be about a year and a half from now. And then we’re estimated to complete the school by the fall of 2028.” 

Khunguray also said that the province’s funding is based on current estimates, and the district would try to work within the provided funding. 

In addition to Cameron, the province will provide an extra $7.5M to fund five more classrooms with 125 student spaces for the Kitchener Elementary expansion, which involves prefabricated classrooms. 

Last December, the Beacon reported on the new project and its prefabricated buildings, which are expected to take half the time of a regular school build. The original project cost $22M and was going to add 375 additional spaces with 15 pre-fabricated classrooms, but enrolment levels this year led the district to conclude that more space is needed. Khunguray said that enrolment growth is the main driver behind the two projects. 

“Both of them are in neighbourhoods that are really seeing a lot of growth,” Khunguray said. “They’re both in neighbourhoods where there are lots of towers, and they’re both close to the SkyTrain, so they’re both seeing a lot of local growth as far as more population coming,” he added.

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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