Dozens of Olympic Village residents gathered Saturday for a rally at the site of the neighbourhood’s future elementary school. Like many of the rallies held at the location in the roughly two decades since a school was first proposed there, it featured lamentations about how long the process has taken. “We’ve heard today from students who are in Grade 11 and they’re still waiting for the elementary school that they were promised,” said Melanie Cheng, chair of the Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council, at Saturday’s event. Unlike in previous years, however, the prospect of a school one day being completed on the site feels real. Vancouver School Board Trustee Preeti Faridkot even put a date on it. “We’re gathered here in support of Olympic Village School that’s going to be built by 2029,” she told reporters at the rally. The school is not a done deal, however. The VSB is currently seeking a rezoning of the site to allow for a larger school building, and the change will need approval from Vancouver city council. Faridkot acknowledged that parents in the neighbourhood have been waiting “far too long,” but said a taller school building – with four floors instead of three – and additional adjacent green space will benefit the community. “We have more enrolment, more students in this area who are going to be attending the school, so we just want to make sure that when it’s built, it’s built in the right way,” she said. Vancouver Coun. Lisa Dominato expressed support for the project, calling it a “long-time priority” for the city. “When the Olympic Village lands were developed, this site was set aside specifically for a school, so it’s been zoned for a school for 20 years, and the biggest delay and hurdle was getting funding from the provincial government,” Dominato said. “Now that we have that funding, the school board is ready to move ahead.”
