| New Westminster Secondary School | |
| Ad Ductum Et Operam For Leadership and Work |
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| Address | |
| 835 Eighth Street New Westminster, British Columbia, V3M 3S9, Canada |
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| Information | |
| School number | 10099001 |
| School board | School District 40 New Westminster |
| Religious affiliation | None |
| Superintendent | Dr. John Woudzia |
| Principal | Mary Bushman |
| Vice principal | Rhonda Anderson, Kelly Boechler, Janine Close, Steve Inniss |
| Staff | 200+ |
| School type | Public Secondary School |
| Grades | 8 to 12 |
| Language | English, French |
| Area | Lower Mainland GVRD |
| Mascot | Firefighter |
| Team name | New Wesminster Hyacks |
| Colours | Black, Orange |
| Founded | 1960 |
| Enrolment | 2200+ |
| Homepage | http://www.nwss.ca |
New Westminster Secondary School is a high school in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. It is one of the largest high schools in BC.[1] Students of grade 8 to 12 are enrolled. The school offers various advanced programs such as the International Baccalaureate program, Advanced Placement courses, and facilities such as the Automotive shop. The school mascot is a fireman and the spirit mascot is the Yak. During 2007, the Fraser Institute ranked the school in the top 50 secondary schools in British Columbia out of the 279 public and private secondary schools in the province..[2] This roughly translates to number 18 out of approximately 75 ranks given.
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New Westminster Secondary School is located in Greater Vancouver in the lower mainland. The school is located over a two block wide campus area, and has many public facilities in close proximity to the school.
During the period of 1860, the site of the school was a public cemetery where most of the prominent citizens of New Westminster were buried. Afterwards, the remains were transferred to the Fraser Cemetery in the 1870s. During 1940, the corner of 10th Avenue and 8th was leased to the Federal Government. It served as soldiers' barracks to train soldiers during World War II. After World War II, the barracks were moved to the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the rest of the cemetery was demolished. Finally, in 1948 The Public Works Yard was moved and the site was transferred to the New Westminster School Board for the construction of offices and high schools. The site was checked for burial remains before construction, but many areas were missed.
In September 1949, Vincent Massey Junior High was unofficially opened by Premier Bryan I. Johnson. On December 16, 1949, the school was officially opened. The school was named after the Right Honourable Vincent Massey, the eighteenth Governor General of Canada.
NWSS has a large music department with many bands. Some of the bands include the grade 8 concert band, grade 9 jazz and concert band, grade 10 jazz and concert band, grade 10 jazz choir, grade 10 girls choir, chamber choir, senior 2 (grade 11) jazz and concert band, senior 1 (grade 12) jazz and concert band, and the Viola/violin orchestra. The school has 2 concerts each year in its own theatre, a winter concert in December and a concert in May/June. The students go on various trips and competitions. For example, the senior bands went to New York in April 2007.[3] Others include competitions in Capilano College and performances in malls and schools. This year(2010), Grade 10 Concert band and Jazz band, Grade 9 Concert band and Jazz band will attend a festival in Whistler from May 7 to May 10.
Every year a winner is determined for the N-Dub idol event, an imitation of American Idol and Canadian Idol where a student will have a chance to win a prize and gain recognition for their singing talent.
The school is composed of two wings, Massey and Pearson. The school is two stories high. The new school is not currently being constructed, due to the schoolboard's lack of organisation. Although the school was supposed to be built by 2010, progress has not been made since the plan had been started. The school was planned to be built three stories high on a smaller area, freeing room for a Middle School on the same campus.
NWSS has many programs for students who want to study specific categories of interest or are aiming for a specific area of study. These include:
As well as these programs, NWSS offers other unique courses, such as Social Justice, Law, Ceramics and Sculpture, Comparative Civilizations, as well as hundreds of other electives and exploratory programs. These accompany the regular academic programs that the school offers.
New Westminster Secondary school currently has the following athletic facilities:
New Westminster Secondary School has more than 13 sports teams including:
New Westminster Secondary School currently has the following technology facilities:
New Westminster secondary school currently provides the following academic resources:
New Westminster Secondary School currently has the following fine arts facilities
The current high school is structurally unstable and also prone to frequent breakdowns. Because of this, the British Columbia Ministry of Education has allowed the construction of a new high school and middle school that will replace the old building. The high school will no longer accept grade eight students after the new construction of the Middle School. Work on the new building was expected to begin in summer of 2005 and be completed in 2007.
In order to sustain enough funds, there has been a proposal to sell parts of the NWSS land to commercial development and housing. In 2005, the school board of NWSS requested for an additional $20 million dollar increase in spending money (in addition to the original $52 million dollars that was approved)[8] for the new school, due to rising construction costs. However, the ministry has rejected the request. As a result, the construction of the new school is now delayed.
On April 26, 2005,[9] part of the school was demolished in the anticipation of building a new school. However, due to the age of the school, asbestos was found to be in the floor of room 138, the room being demolished.[10] Because of this incident, the school district was fined by WorkSafeBC, who claimed that the school district did not provide enough information to the workers about the asbestos. While the workers themselves claimed that they were not aware of the asbestos, former principal Joey Sahli stated in a school assembly that the workers had this responsibility to find out. The cause of the incident still remains debatable and unclear.
Within a month, the part with asbestos was blocked off in an attempt to prevent it from spreading. While the area was closed, there was a potential of students who were exposed to asbestos, having studied in that area. Drama students and teachers were potentially affected due to the location of the asbestos directly in the Fine Arts section of the school. As a response to this, the school district has conducted many surveys and health checks to assure the safety of the students and staff.[11][12][13]
Drinking fountains were bagged and the cafeteria was shut down on November 17, 2007[14] after a test determined that the water at New Westminster Secondary School could have contained a bacterium found in fecal matter. The school has conducted tests on May 3, 2007 after the water was seen to be murky in the second floor of Massey Wing, but at that time the problem was not evident. More tests were conducted in October, but only until November were the results informative. According to a Ministry of Environment report, the presence of coliform bacteria indicates contamination of water with fecal waste that may contain bacteria, viruses, or parasites. Drinking water contaminated with coliform can cause stomach and intestinal illness including diarrhea and nausea, the report states. The school responded to this by flushing out the water in both ends of the school and provided bottled water for two days, while warning students about the unsafe water in the announcements. Notices were sent home on November 20, 2007 explaining the situation.
On November 21, 2007, the water in the school was reported to be safe to drink. Second tests shown that the school's drinking water did not contain coliform.[15] According to Michael Ewen, school board chair, the A.C.M. Environmental Corporation, which tested that water and prepared the district's asbestos management plan, has made a mistake when it uncovered unacceptable levels of coliform in the water from samples taken on October 26. He states that "A second company tested the water and found that the water is fine and safe and always was" and that the coliform was found in taps from chemistry labs.
On December 4, 2007, school administrators were informed that an NWSS student had been diagnosed with infectious tuberculosis (TB).[16] While the identity of the 9th grade student could not be released, over 200 peers and teachers who came into contact with the individual were notified, and voluntary testing was carried out in room 149 starting on December 11. Responding to the incident, superintendent John Woudzia stated: "It's a significant issue, (but) I'm convinced we have a good plan in place." Most forms of TB are currently treatable with antibiotics, but drug-resistant strains are becoming more common. As a follow-up procedure, the school tested these students and teachers once again on February 13, 2008.
New Westminster Secondary School was locked down on Thursday April 10, 2008 by police as officers tried to confirm reports of a handgun being seen there.[17] Police were looking for a 14-year-old male teenager after a report of a handgun at New Westminster secondary school Thursday afternoon.
Police said the teen, a refugee from Rwanda, was spotted with a gun by another student, a Grade 9 girl. The teen did not seem to attend NWSS.[18] She reported the gun to the school's police liaison officer who then ordered a lockdown. At approximately 1:40 p.m., a school wide lockdown was announced by the principal, stating that the incident was "not a rehearsal". Prior to this incident, the school has conducted several lockdown drills in the beginning of the year, especially after the Virginia Tech massacre.
New Westminster Police responded to the incident with full force and called in the Integrated Municipal Emergency Response Team and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Emergency Response Team (ERT), Burnaby RCMP, the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Service and Delta Police Department to assist. There were several helicopters spotted circulating the school. Concerned parents were told to gather at Century House in Moody Park, where they are being briefed about the situation at the school. Victim Services was also on location while police used Moody Park Arena as the command centre.
The school conducted a controlled evacuation at approximately 4:00 p.m. in which classes were evacuated one by one while being escorted by heavily armed police officers. ERT officers were standing and patrolling in NWSS's hallways along the way. Students and staff were instructed by the principal to follow ERT officers' directions to leave the school in the quickest way possible. The top floor of Pearson wing was evacuated first, followed by the top floor in Massey wing, and then the bottom floors of Pearson wing, and Massey wing.
All classes on that day and the day after were canceled.[19]
The 14 year old teenager was arrested on April 11, 2008, but released because there was not enough evidence to charge him.[20]
The school was hit by lightning on September 18, 2007 at approximately 4:00pm during a thunder storm. The school was evacuated and no one was hurt. The lighting caused a failure in a school's heating system, leaving the entire school unheated the next day.
The New Westminster School District is has announced the plans for the replacement of the New Westminster Secondary School (NWSS). NWSS will continue to be the biggest school in the Province of British Columbia with this largest and most complex construction project in the history of the province. As the only high school in New Westminster, NWSS also serves as a hub of the community, which means the high school students will enjoy the benefits of facilities not normally found in high schools. The new school will incorporate a community facilities development including improvements to the existing Massey Theatre (1260 seat auditorium), a new Fine Arts Centre which will also include a 300 seat theatre, expanded athletic fields, and a sports field house which will have a capacity for 6 basketball courts. Modern architectural designs will maximize space and light in the new school buildings, and incorporate state of the art heating and ventilation cooling systems.[21]
The new school will be built on the site of the existing school and will accommodate up to 2,400 students – 375 more than the current enrollment. Enrollment at the New Westminster Secondary school is increasing, and this trend is expected to continue through to 2013. The replacement school was expected to open in September 2007, but due to funding issues, it is currently delayed.[8]
As of April 29, 2007, it was believed that the government had promised either the new High School or Middle School would be built by the year 2009.[22] It is currently being decided whether the school would accept students of grades 10-12 and have a middle school with grades 7-9, or to have the secondary school with grades 9-12 and the middle school as grades 6-8.
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