Project Home > Criteria

I had considered contacting either the School District office to obtain the "official line" on the criteia used to determine the optimal placement for the new middle school. However, I decided not to do this for the following reasons:

  • Given the current job action being taken by the B.C. Teachers' Federation, the resources of the School District are already taxes without a whiny university student pestering them for information :-)

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  • The District's stated intention of possibly utilizing parkland was well-publicized in the local media. I did not want to become further biased.
  • I wanted to examine this question from the point-of-view of a resident of the community in which the school is being placed (which I am). Where would I, as a member of the community, want this school to go?

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Keeping these points in mind, I developed the following criteria for the selection of sites for the new middle school.

  • The site must be inside the City of New Westminster (can't be stepping on Burnaby's toes now, can we?).

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  • The site must be located inside the catchment area for the four elementary schools that feed into it.

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  • The site must be located no more than 150 m from a bus stop. The bus must also connect to a SkyTrain station.

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  • The site must be on unoccupied land or parkland. (The parkland criteria was the one "predetermined" criteria - the option was already in the public domain.)

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  • The site must be at least 650 m from industrial land.

With these criteria in mind, I could now begin collecting data.