Coquitlam's Burke Mountain neighbourhood is getting a new elementary school.
The province announced Friday the 430-student school will be built on Sheffield Avenue. The government is putting forward $67.6 million to build the school and to expand three others.
Dr. Charles Best Secondary will see an added 150 new seats, as will Westwood Elementary. Panorama Heights Elementary will be expanded to fit 90 more children.
Altogether, the budget creates 820 new spaces, the Ministry of Education said in a statement. The Coquitlam School District is also chipping in to help pay for the new school, which will cost about $52 million.
It's expected to open in 2021.
The work at Dr. Charles Best and Panorama Heights is expected to be completed the same year, while Westwood's expansion will be done a year earlier.
The goal is to move students out of portables and into classrooms.
Currently there are nearly 110 portables being used in Coquitlam, the province said.
"Enrolment has grown in Coquitlam since 2007, but only one new elementary school was built in the last decade," said Education Minister Rob Fleming. "When students are in modern classrooms, not portables, they are more successfully engaged with their studies."
