An entire Grade 7 class bombarded the Richmond News with letters of concern about their schools expansion.
But not only is their principal OK with the public outcry shes as proud as punch.
The 19 French-immersion students at Henry Anderson elementary penned their personal e-mail letters this week and almost simultaneously clicked send on Tuesday afternoon.
And as the letters to the editor poured into the News inbox, it quickly became apparent they were all singing from the same song sheet.
They are all worried about the upcoming expansion to the school on the northeast of the Granville Avenue/Garden City Road intersection.
The $5 million project is expected to produce up to ten new classrooms, potentially swelling the school roll from 500 to 800 students, making it easily the biggest elementary in the city.
Our field is just the right size for our present population of 522 students and staff and having 300 more would be too crowded. Since our new expansion would be replacing a huge part of our field, there would not be enough fresh air, wrote
K. Tong.
a positive aspect of this is that, in order to build the extension, many jobs will be available for families all across Richmond! So not only does it help the children, but also the adults who cannot find jobs!
(But) I also have doubts because if we are going to expand our school, we will need to use most parts of our field, and so the students wont get as much room to play as before! Also, because of the parking spaces, we already have to stop our cars and wait for car in front of us to move on. If we added another 100-150 cars, there would be a lot of confusion and frustration because maybe parents are in a hurry to drop off their child so they could go to work and they might make a confusion by moving ahead of a car, of turning back, wrote Rachel C.
More letters from the students can be found on page ????. School principal Pamela Essex said she wasnt surprised to learn of the students publicly expressing their opinion.
One of the things and I am biased here about Anderson students is that they have amazing leadership skills and that theyre so aware of the community and theyre so willing to help, Essex said.
Im happy that theyre asking questions and the views of the students are very important to us.
Essex said she fully understands the students concerns about the massive growth spurt and does, to a certain extent, share their anxiety.
I know the district is considering Andersons growth and will be looking at whether its a good idea to have a school this big, she said.
I still dont have any details of how many classrooms that is going to be or how many students.
Eight hundred in an elementary school is something that other districts have. But it is a lot of students and a lot of families in one spot.
Perhaps having a community centre in the area that the school could use during the day would help, the principal suggested.
As for the inevitable parking lot congestion when the expansion is completed, Essex said the school is working with the City of Richmond and its own engineering department to alleviate concerns, many of which the students refer to in their letters.
Were planning something to calm the traffic around the school and looking at ways of getting parents to park in other places, she said.
As recent as September, students at Anderson moved into a new $1.7 million four-classroom addition to accommodate full-day kindergarten.
