More classrooms, less play space for Surrey elementary school

Sketch plans for new additions at two elementary schools did not go over so well with trustees at the recent Surrey school board meeting.

Old Yale Road and Latimer Road elementaries will be getting prefabricated modular additions at each school site, with the sketch plans unveiled at the regular March 12 school board meeting by architect Bassem Tawfik from KMBR Architects Planners Inc.

An issue of note for trustee Laurie Larsen is the lack of new parking at Latimer Road, even with the six-classroom addition.

“There’s already not enough parking for the existing staff, let alone for any parents that come to pick up their children,” she said.

“I’ve dropped a kid off at that school for almost six years so I know it, it’s horrendous and there’s a lot of parking on 192 (Street) that draws on a lot of people’s driveways and they get towed, so I am dismayed that we are having a new addition with extra staff need but no extra staff parking.”

Capital projects director Dave Riley admitted that the school, “like all of our schools has insufficient parking,” but there is not enough ministry funding to create more parking spots at the school, he added.

“So where are the staff going to park?” Larsen insisted, but Riley said he did not have a good answer for her.

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