A major expansion will take place at Ladner Elementary School (LES) after the provincial government recently came through with big dollars.
A report to the Delta Board of Education on capital projects notes that on Sept. 19, 2024, the Ministry of Education amended its response to the school board’s 2024/2025 capital plan submission made in September 2023.
The province included a project from the board’s 2025/26 submission into the list of approved projects, supporting a $9 million LES addition.
That project, combined with other approved projects, represents a $10.74M investment by the ministry.
The school board each year submits its list of proposed projects that fall under either major capital plan or minor capital plan streams. Projects range from new playground equipment to roof refurbishments.
Leading the list of major capital plan projects was the proposed expansion.
A report earlier this year on the 2025/26 capital plan said the latest enrollment projections for Delta indicate that enrollment will continue its slow recovery from many years of decline and that there is system-wide classroom capacity to accommodate the expected number of students for the foreseeable future.
However, the district is seeing a rapid increase in school-aged children in certain areas.
The district again submitted, under the annual School Enhancement Program, a request for the addition at LES to allow for the projected increase of elementary school-aged children within that catchment area in the next three-to-seven years.
The report also noted there are no schools in the district inventory which have reached or are forecast to reach the end of their useful life, but there is one modular connected pod at Hawthorne Elementary that will be reaching the end of its life cycle within the next five years.
Major structural or accumulated maintenance needs will exceed the cost of replacement, thus, the district resubmitted a proposal for the replacement of that modular pod for $8.7M within the five-year capital plan time frame.
