The Surrey School District continues to move forward with a plan to centralize it’s staff into a new facility – aptly named the District Education and Conference Centre or DECC.
According to a recent study done for the School District, which examined multiple sites for such a facility, the recommended area is near 92 Ave and 140 St – where the current District Conference Centre, the Invergarry Learning Centre, and the Surrey College are all housed.
The current District board office is 18,000 square feet and 45 years old – arguably an unacceptable state of affairs for the city with the largest school district in the province. In comparison, Vancouver’s School Board office is 103,000 square feet – and the second largest school district in BC.
The first phase of the preliminary DECC plan is estimated to be about 150,000 sq.ft., costing approximately $50 million. Despite repeated requests from the district, the Ministry of Education has yet to commit any capital funding.
These costs are dramatically less than the original outrageous estimate of $96 million, as reported at paulhillsdon.com.
Too bad it’s sorta in the middle of nowhere – not nearly as convenient for transit access as VSB’s main offices at Granville & Broadway.
I know! The VSB board offices are wonderful, and they support Vancouver’s densification land use policies along a major transit corridor (Broadway). It’s disappointing that the District took the cheaper route rather than building this facility in the City Centre.
i agree that the current District board office is an unacceptable state of affairs for the city with the largest school district in the province but i also understand if the Ministry of Education is hesitant on spending that much money on a facility that will not be easily accessible to the people.
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Too bad it's sorta in the middle of nowhere – not nearly as convenient for transit access as VSB's main offices at Granville & Broadway.