The design plan for the new $79-million Burnaby North Second School is being met with wide acclaim from parents.
And rightly so.
It looks bright and bold, with details that aim to take up a much-smaller footprint than the existing 63-year-old school. The new building will be a true community hub, according to school officials, featuring the school proper, a conference centre and a neighbourhood learning centre with child care and adult and continuing education space. Instead of wings with long, linear hallways, the school’s classrooms will be arranged in “pods” – nine six-classroom clusters arranged in a “horseshoe” shape with the centre of the horseshoe designed to function as a mini student commons or “breakout space.”
It all sounds so wonderful.
So why am I so bitter about it?
I read all of the details in the NOW’s story on Friday and found myself clenching my fists at every wonderful detail.
The truth is I’m bitter because I went to BNSS in the 1980s, graduating in 1986, and it felt like attending school in Alcatraz. Everything was so grey and dark and impersonal. I loved the teachers (especially Mr. Kozak, Mrs. Rhodes and Mrs. Schamberger – history’s greatest drama teacher) and learned a lot, but the facility was a dank dungeon.
I won’t ever get to enjoy the new, modern space and I’m a little hurt, you could say.
Maybe it’s because so many good things happened at the school AFTER I graduated.
For instance, BNSS is split into two buildings and you had to take a long set of stairs between the two in the rain without an overhang to keep you dry.
So, of course, an overhang was added AFTER I graduated.
Then there’s the issue of the cool-ass Viking statue that proudly adorns the front of the school. It’s so ridiculously wonderful with its dark, brooding death-stare.
And, yep, it was built AFTER I graduated.
Then even painted the place and upgraded the main sports field, adding more lighting and other bells and whistles.
I used to go to soccer practice on the gravel field next to BNSS that had a few lights on one side that only really lit one half of the field.
Now there is a world-class lit field that I missed out on.
I am so happy for all of the kids who have benefited from these changes.
But I’m bitter. Bitter that I grew up when Social Credit ran British Columbian schools like it was doling out soup to Oliver Twist.
Every time I see one of these ex-Social Credit politicians lionized I feel like throwing up. We didn’t even have enough textbooks to go around when the government shut down the Burnaby Heights high school and dumped half of the students into BNSS.
Having said all of this, I will make sure that I am there when the new BNSS opens its doors in 2022. I might even smile.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
