Parents concerned over possibility elite hockey program will end up at their school

Concerns about elite hockey academy West Vancouver doesn't want them anymore, so why is North Vancouver's school district welcoming them? That's what some parents are asking about a local hockey academy.

North Vancouver, B.C. — Players from an elite North Shore hockey academy are in search of a new school after the West Vancouver School District cut ties with the program.

Seventy-six players from the West Van Warriors hockey academy's four teams currently attend Sentinel Secondary School— just a few hundred metres up the road from Hollyburn Country Club, where the Warriors practice every afternoon. The hockey academy costs $22,000 a year per student athlete.

The school district won't renew the partnership for next season, forcing the club to find a new place for its students to study.

But parents at one proposed location — Deep Cove's Seycove Secondary School — said the close-knit community is no place for the 76 Warriors players.

"It came to our attention, as well as the trustee indicated, that there were some behavioural concerns," said Tiffany Britton, a Seycove parent who worries if the players are not well behaved enough for West Van, they could disrupt things at Seycove as well.

Seycove parents were surprised to learn their school is the Warriors' preferred choice, and about 150 of them attended a meeting about it this week.

"Everyone that came out seems to have done the research before they came and had lots of questions," said Tree Cleland who has a son in Grade 10 at Seycove.

The North Vancouver School District says the initial announcement that startled parents could have been handled better.

"The school district certainly did not do an adequate job in the communication of that process," said the district's communications manager Deneka Michaud.

After Monday's contentious meeting, the district announced a new round of online consultation on the proposal.

"No decision has been made at this point," Michaud said. "All of the concerns, questions and comments are being accepted. They're being heard and listened to."

CTV News reached out to the West Van Warriors for an interview, but the club did not respond.

The West Vancouver School District did not return calls or emails regarding its decision to end its relationship with the hockey academy.

It's not clear what the team will do if its players are not allowed to go to Seycove.

Parents, students, and others involved in the Seycove community will have one last chance to provide in-person feedback at a meeting at the school on April 1. The West Van Warriors' evaluation camp for next season starts the next day.