New Westminster is a medium-sized city approximately 10 kilometers away from Vancouver, B.C. There are approximately 53,782 people, occupying 15.3 square kilometers.

Figure 1 - New Westminster, BC (with roads)

5333 of these people are students in School District No. 40 (New Westminster). Until recently, SD 40 was composed of nine elementary schools (grades K-7), feeding into one secondary school. New Westminster Secondary School had a population of approximately 2200 students enrolled in grades 8-12.

About three years ago, the District started moving to a middle school model. The District has planned for three grade 6-8 middle schools: one in the eastern section of the city, one in Queensborough, and a third in the west end.

Glenbrook Middle School (already open)

Queensborough Middle School (conceptual)

The third middle school, in the city's West End, is still in the early conceptual phase. The primary reason for this is that the School District has not yet been able to secure land to build on. The West End area is a mostly comprised of single family detatched homes, with pockets of apartment/condo high-rises, townhouse developments and low-cost co-op housing. There is not much available land to build upon. So tight is the land market in the West End, the District has revealed that it has considered using park land as a possible site.

I have lived in the West End for 20 years. I spent my entire pre-post-secondary school there, from Preschool, to Kindergarten, up to Grade 12. This issue, therefore, is of a personal interest to me. It was for that reason that I decided to try to answer the following question over the course of this project: