Students make plea to save Surrey learning centres – BC

The South Surrey White Rock Learning Centre is set to permanently close this summer, and the students feel they have been left out of the conversation.

Spirit Broomfield currently attends the centre and says she was shocked to hear that the facility would be closing.

“I think it is really insane to close these kind of schools when they do not cost a lot at all,” said Broomfield.

“The district is very shady, they don’t include us in the decision process of closing these schools down, they don’t ask us how we feel about it.”

Current and former students as well as parents plan to present to the Surrey School Board Wednesday night as a last-ditch effort to save the facility.

It is the first time that the district will formally hear from those directly impacted by the closure.

“Me and my mom are speaking about how the school has helped me and how the school has saved all these students,” said Broomfield.

“Not only that, the mainstream students who are struggling and on the verge of dropping out won’t make it because they won’t have a safe space to go like this.”

According to the district, the centre’s lease expires in June and the building also needs renovations but there is no money in the budget to repair the building or to pay higher rent.

James Johnson, a retired teacher who worked at the school for eight years, argues that keeping the centre open would save the community money in the long run.

“Hundreds of testimonials of people that said this changed their life, this saved their life. This diverted them from psych unit stays and interactions with the police or incarceration or got them addiction treatment. It doesn’t solve all these problems, but it’s a big piece in helping it,” said Johnson.

“We can measure this in numbers, by what it costs to deal with mental health, addiction and criminality issues down the road, or we can spend a little money now.

“The impact is exponential. It’s an order of magnitude difference, in the little bit we spend now compared to what we’re going to have to pay for this as a society, down the road.”

The district is planning to go from five learning centres down to two by the end of the school year.

Students will have the option to transfer to alternative programs at South Surrey’s four high schools in the fall.

“What is really important for students is to have options, and not all kids fit in mainstream school, and what the learning centres provided was a low barrier opportunity for them, to stay in contact, to feel part of a community, to have targeted wraparound support,” said Surrey District Parents Advisory Council president Anne Whitmore.

“That’s what you hear time and time again, students that are currently in and alumni from there, how it’s changed their lives. So that’s the hope, is that Surrey continues to have options for kids who need them.”

Students have been rallying together since the initial announcement and have gathered more than 6,500 signatures online.

Broomfield says they will continue to fight to keep their school open no matter what.

“The one thing that has been positive about this experience is all the students coming together, and coming up with new ideas to save the school,” said Broomfield.

“It is a really good community, the students who went here and go here.”

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