New Westminster School District Trustees Danielle Connelly and Kathleen Carlsen are speaking out as individual elected officials – not on behalf of the full Board – and raising the alarm about the lack of dedicated provincial funding to cool down classrooms, as another hot summer looms and hundreds of students remain stuck learning in overheated, unsafe portables.
“Let’s be clear: there is no dedicated funding from the Ministry of Education for air conditioning or cooling in schools,” said Trustee Danielle Connelly. “Districts are forced to apply for small, piecemeal grants while more and more students are pushed into portables — which are not only overcrowded, but also dangerously hot during extreme weather.”
Trustees Connelly and Kathleen Carlsen say this situation is a direct result of the provincial government’s ongoing failure to invest in adequate, permanent classroom spaces. With enrollment growing and capital funding lagging, portables have become the default — not the temporary solution they were meant to be.
“This is the price of inaction,” said Trustee Carlsen. “The BC NDP’s failure to deal with school capacity issues is now impacting the health and wellbeing of our students and staff. Students are learning in unsafe, uncomfortable conditions. Teachers are expected to work through extreme heat. It’s completely unacceptable.”
According to a CBC News investigation, this issue is widespread across B.C. Many portables lack any form of air conditioning, with no provincial requirement or long-term funding in place to ensure students and staff are protected during increasingly frequent heat events.
In New Westminster and beyond, school staff are being forced to rotate students in and out of overheated portables to try and give them breaks in cooler spaces — a well-intentioned measure, but one that interrupts learning and highlights the inadequacy of the current system.
“The inequity here is glaring,” said Connelly. “Some students have access to safe, comfortable classrooms. Others are in temporary trailers that become unsafe during heat waves. And still, the provincial government has no plan in place to fix it.”
Trustee Carlsen didn’t mince words: “Think about that — school districts have to apply for grants so that children can learn and teachers can work in safe, livable conditions. That’s what we’re dealing with in B.C. right now. It’s so wrong.”
As individual trustees, Connelly and Carlsen are calling on the Province to Create a dedicated, long-term funding stream for cooling and ventilation systems in all school facilities, with a focus on portables; and commit to a comprehensive plan to address classroom capacity, including new school builds and expansions.
“This isn’t about politics — it’s about student safety, health, and learning,” said Connelly. “This government has known for years that these issues exist. They’ve chosen not to act. Students and staff deserve far better than this.”
NOTE: This statement reflects the individual views of Trustees Danielle Connelly and Kathleen Carlsen. It does not represent the official position of the New Westminster Board of Education.
