Inside the evolving future of the long-delayed Olympic Village school

Good morning, 

Nate with you today. I’m feeling incredibly lucky after having a week for the ages. I was fortunate enough to attend four (4!!) concerts in the past week by incredible international and local artists. 

It was also an opportunity to tour a range of Vancouver venues; each with its own unique flavour and appeal. The famously bouncy dance floor at the Commodore Ballroom, the scale of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the class and acoustics of the Chan Centre, and, my personal favourite, the exquisite union of old and new at the revamped Hollywood Theatre. 

It’s not every week we get a run of excellent shows like that, but don’t let anyone tell you Vancouver doesn’t attract great acts. While we could still do better at supporting local artists, the energy and turnout I saw this week was a reminder that Vancouverites are doing their part to keep genre legends and rising stars coming back for more. 

But enough about the wild week that was, let’s get to today’s story!

— Nate Lewis, Vancity Lookout

As always, you can send your tips, leads, and story ideas to Nate at [email protected].

PS - If you find this newsletter valuable, please consider forwarding it to your friends. New to the Lookout? Sign-up for free. 

WEATHER

Wednesday: 13 🌡️ 8 | ☁️

Thursday: 12 🌡️ 9 | 🌧️

Friday: 11 🌡️ 9 | 🌧️

SCHOOLS

Inside the evolving future of the long-delayed Olympic Village school

When Helen Lui and her husband moved to Olympic Village in 2016, they chose the neighbourhood for its easy walking and biking access. 

But as a family going back and forth about having a kid, Lui knew that their chosen lifestyle would require a school nearby — Olympic Village didn’t have a school yet, but one had been promised since the mid-2000s when the city was planning the new neighbourhood ahead of the 2010 Olympics. 

Now, nearly a decade after moving to the area, Lui has a six-month-old child, Charlie, but the elementary school has yet to be built. Last year, the province announced $150 million in funding for the project, which is now scheduled to open in 2030, according to the Vancouver School Board (VSB).   

“A lot of people have been waiting a really long time,” Lui told Vancity Lookout at a recent rally where about 100 parents, children, and elected officials gathered in support of the new school at the proposed site near Hinge Park. That point was punctuated by one precocious child in sunglasses who ran around the event chanting, “We want a school now!”

“The anxiety is very real. People are aware of the lack of [a] school,” Sarah Pawliuk, a parent of young kids and one of the rally organizers, told Vancity Lookout. 

For VSB Chair Victoria Jung, the long delay has been due to the competing priorities for the provincial government, which is responsible for funding schools. “They're prioritizing projects all over the province. Unfortunately, we were not at the top of the list until now. We need money, so we've been fighting for it,” Jung told Vancity Lookout, noting the school board’s gratitude for the $150 million from the province for the project.

The Olympic Village school had been a top priority in the VSB’s capital plan for over a decade, according to the school board. 

The long delay has meant kids living in Olympic Village need to be taken to other nearby elementary schools like False Creek and Simon Fraser, contributing to the broader issue of overcrowding in B.C. schools. 

For example, enrollment at the almost 70-year-old Simon Fraser Elementary in Mount Pleasant was nearly double the school’s operating capacity in 2024-2025 — far and away the most overcrowded elementary school in the city. False Creek Elementary was also overfilled last year, with enrollment at 117 per cent of the school’s capacity. 

However, school capacity in Vancouver isn’t a straightforward issue. Many other elementary schools in the city are under-enrolled, and the VSB is projecting its use of space district-wide will actually decrease from 83 per cent in 2021 to an estimated 76 per cent by 2031, according to a report from 2021.

At the same time, there’s serious pressure on schools in areas seeing rapid development and population growth — spots like downtown, Mount Pleasant, Kits, and around False Creek. 

The high demand for school spots in these neighbourhoods has led the VSB and the province to try to feed two birds with one seed by increasing the capacity at the newly-funded Olympic Village school, with an eye to serving families in False Creek and the surrounding areas. 

With provincial funding, the proposed capacity has increased to 630 students. The building’s proposed height has also increased, adding an extra storey and a rooftop playground and outdoor space. 

“The commitment by the Provincial Government to build an elementary school in Olympic Village provides a pathway to a long-term resolution to much of the enrolment challenges in this area of the city,” the VSB said in a May 2024 rezoning application for the site. A bigger building for more students triggered the rezoning, since the proposed building heights are beyond what the city initially envisioned in 2007 when the area’s original bylaws were passed.

The new proposal for the school isn’t “dramatically increasing in terms of the number of storeys or the footprint,” ABC Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung told Vancity Lookout. Kirby-Yung, who will vote on the rezoning application when it comes to council, said building capacity in amenities like community centres and schools is a good thing. “You don't want to be under building [so] that things are immediately full,” Kirby-Yung said.

The rezoning has also reignited opposition from some neighbours, who say students coming from outside the neighbourhood will increase vehicle congestion, and point to increasing school capacity in other parts of Vancouver as a harbinger of decreased demand city-wide. 

Cathy Thornicroft and Mianna Dowling moved to Olympic Village in the past four years and are part of a group called Village Voices that’s organizing against the current plan for a bigger school that would serve additional students beyond Olympic Village. 

“Asking families from outside our catchment to come here doesn't make a lot of sense, given the way the village has been structured, and given the fact that there is excess capacity,” at other schools, Thornicroft told Vancity Lookout. 

In a recently released traffic assessment for the rezoning, the VSB estimated that around 400 of the 630 students would live within one kilometre of the school, mostly in Olympic Village and False Creek, with the rest coming from surrounding neighbourhoods. 

The school’s transit plan is heavily reliant on active transportation. It’s a very well-served area, with nearby bike paths and two SkyTrain stations. Walking to school is a big emphasis, given the close proximity of most of its presumed students. The transit plan projects 83 per cent of students will walk or bike, with 13 per cent (or 80 students) expected to be driven from out of catchment. The school plans also call for very minimal parking spots (six on the school site) and curbside drop-off and pick-up spots (six to 12). The plan doesn’t include estimates of how the 62 staff members will get to school.

“I think it's time we look at the future instead of the past. We have schools that have many, many, many parking spaces. This is not what this school is going to be,” VSB Chair Jung said.

The VSB also recently announced that they are negotiating an agreement for school-time access and upgrades to Hinge Park directly north of the school site. After calling for more outdoor space around the school, Thornicroft said she was “joyful” to see that being considered. “That access for children is excellent… We're not asking for sprawling fields,” she said. 

Thornicroft and Dowling emphasized they are in favour of the school, but want it to be smaller. Thornicroft, a retired educator and school administrator in Richmond and Delta, said that if the choice was between the 630-student school or no school at all she would take the bigger school. However, Thornicroft would rather see a smaller school in Olympic Village and have the VSB address overcrowding by spending some of the $150 million to construct modular buildings at other schools.  

In a statement to Vancity Lookout, the VSB said they “anticipate full use” of the approved funding for the Olympic Village school. 

“I think it's hard for people to see a lot of change happening around them,” Jung said. “I would really encourage people to look at the needs of the city above their own personal needs. [Right now] we are in desperate need of [Kindergarten] to [Grade] seven education in Olympic Village,” Jung added. 

Anthony Smith was one of the first full-time residents of Olympic Village when, in the summer of 2010, he moved into a building near Columbia Street and Walter Hardwick Avenue, right across the street from the proposed school site.  

Smith recalled his initial opposition to the school, which would have blocked his view of False Creek from his northwest-facing corner unit. “I was being quite selfish,” Smith reflected, saying he’d hoped the school wouldn’t be built. 

Around 2015, Smith had a change of heart after seeing a group of young mothers with their kids using Hinge Park. 

“​​I suddenly thought, if we don't have a school, these mothers will be driving around to different parts of Vancouver to take their kids to school,” Smith told Vancity Lookout. “The school is really part of the neighbourhood… what’s the big deal with seeing the water?”

The long delay has already pushed two generations of Olympic Village kids to other schools, leading to overcrowding and longer commutes. But there’s now hope that the next generation of kids, like Lui’s child Charlie, will get to attend a school close to home. 

SPONSORED BY VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Five days left of the 2025 Vancouver International Film Festival!

VIFF 2025 is underway and the first half of this year's festival has been incredible! Celebrating local filmmaking and international guests, and combining film with live performance and talks from industry experts, VIFF has something for everyone.

Over the next five days pick up tickets to newly-added screenings of some of the most popular festival films, including A Welcome Distraction, John Candy: I Like Me, and La Salsa Vive, as well as daily ticket releases to previously sold-out screenings including Special Presentations and the Closing Gala. Discover emerging new filmmakers in VIFF's Short Forum and experience cinema on the cutting edge with MODES. Go behind the scenes with post-screening Q&As and talks from some of the filmmakers featured in this year's festival.

VIFF runs until Oct 12 with tickets selling fast. Support your local film festival and find out more at viff.org.

THE VANCOUVER NUMBER

$4 billion

That’s how much Metro Vancouver is cutting from its budget for upgrades to the Iona Island wastewater treatment plant, which serves 750,000 people, mostly in Vancouver, as well as a handful of residents of Richmond and Burnaby. The savings on the project, which was initially budgeted at $10 billion, are due to deferring some of the work, which will, of course, cost more to do in the future. Read more. [CBC]

THE AGENDA

🎨 The future home of the Vancouver Art Gallery will revert to a parking lot as the project goes back to the drawing board. New architects are now tasked with creating a more affordable version amid limited arts funding in Canada. Work to date, including repaving the area where construction began, has cost about $60 million. Read more. [CBC]

🏢 City council voted to rezone more than 4,000 properties at once. We’ve got you covered on the pros and cons of the move. Read more. [Vancity Lookout] 

🦹 There’s an alleged prolific shoplifter operating in and around Pacific Centre and local retailers don’t think mall management is doing enough to stop them. Read more. [City News]

💥 Park board comissioner Marie-Claire Howard is still in hot water over frequent meeting absences. In a testy back-and-forth debate amongst the board and with public speakers, ABC commissioners fought back against a motion to look into disqualifying Howard. Comm. Jas Virdi even said Howard should sue the park board for what he called a “public shaming.” When the issue was first brought up last month, we wrote about how the issue reflects the climate of polarization and the lack of accountability for elected officials in Vancouver. The board has dropped its request for a legal opinion on Howard’s attendance, instead asking for an investigation into Howard’s potential conflict of interest in participating and voting on the disqualification motions over the past month. [Vancity Lookout] 

🏠 While it’s still one of the most expensive places in Canada to live, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment has dropped by nearly $500 since 2023. Read more. [Daily Hive]

🚢 Movement of commodities at the Port of Metro Vancouver is up 13 per cent compared to the same time last year. Port officials credit a strong grain export, efforts to diversity foreign markets, and the port’s own work to better manage cargo ship traffic. Read more. [Western Producer]

💰 One Vancouver Police sergeant was paid $239,258 in overtime last year, on top of their base salary of up to $158,000. Read more. [CBC]

🏒 The Canucks have announced their opening night roster. Read more. [NHL.com]

🎺 VSO’s strike is over, with the union representing Vancouver Symphony Orchestra musicians reaching a tentative agreement with management. The symphony will return on October 10. Read more. [CBC]

HOME OF THE WEEK

Since today’s story is on Olympic Village and schools, we thought we’d feature a bigger home in the area.

And what a home it is. Three bedrooms, with 1,100 square feet of space, this place has a massive kitchen for cooking all those kids meals, along with a gym and other great amenities.

Unfortunately this home shows a big problem with building in Vancouver, namely the lack of affordable three-bedroom homes. See how much the most affordable three-bedroom apartment in Olympic Village will set you back

VANCOUVER ARTS GUIDE

Between Breaths is new play at Firehall Arts Centre about a man saving whales trapped in fishing nets off the coast of Newfoundland, a haunting meditation on memory loss and connection. From Nov. 12-23, with tickets at $30. 

East Van Panto is back for their 13th season, with their new show West Van Story, about a West Van influencer who’s stranded with her curling crew during an atmospheric tsunami, and (potentially) finds love in unexpected places. On through November and December at the Cultch. 

A mix of jazz, experimental and a kladexcope of music, Ches Smith’s Clone Row will be performing at Revue Stage this Friday. The four musicians are serving up something different, which you can listen to here. 

There are still a few days left of the Vancouver International Film Festival. Popular ones to see include Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, likely Oscar contende Sentimental Value and Bradley Cooper’s new movie Is This Thing On?

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS

• Join leading voices in film and television for a glimpse into their creative process in VIFF Talks. Get your tickets now! [Sponsored]

• $15 trees are available for purchase from the City of Vancouver. [Curiocity]

• Taylor Swift’s new song “The Life of a Showgirl” features audio from her Eras Tour concert in Vancouver. [Billboard]

• Did you lose a bunny at YVR? [CTV]

• A Vancouver surgeon has performed the first night vision restoration surgery in British Columbia. [Vancouver Sun]

• Monday’s a holiday, plan ahead for what’s open and what’s closed. [Curiocity]

GAME TIME

There was a great one of these this weekend. Can you work out what it is?

PHOTO OF THE DAY

In what was technically my fifth concert of the week, I got to catch snippets of a youth jazz band and a folk trio at the Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival in Slocan Park this weekend. It was a lively, wholesome affair with a great turnout on a sunny Saturday.

It was my first time attending the festival, which just celebrated its 23rd year. But the annual event, organized by Still Moon Arts Society, clearly has some dedicated fans and community. Count me in for next year!