School District 36 Surrey operates schools in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, White Rock, and Barnston Island,

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. It is the largest school district in British Columbia with 71,838 students during the 2016/2017 school year. District 36 includes 101 elementary schools, 26 secondary schools, and 5 learning centres. The first school in Surrey opened in 1882. The district is Surrey’s largest employer with 10,989 employees including 6,063 teachers.

Administration

The Surrey School District's administration hub is the District Education Centre and was officially opened on September 11, 2011.

Schools

Elementary schools

Secondary schools and other programs

Budget

The Surrey School District balanced its budget for the 2013-14 school year. A $600 million preliminary operating budget was approved for the 2013-2014 school year. It comprises $573 million in provincial government grants and $15 million from district revenue. An additional $12.3 million was found in unspent funds and another $4 million was to come through reducing expenditures and some job reductions. There was an overall decrease of 45 positions, including 25 teachers and 17 support staff, mainly through attrition. The Surrey School District is one of few districts in the province experiencing an increase in enrolment. The district has 273 portables to address overcapacity. In May 2016, the provincial government announced contributing $100 million to fund six projects to add 2,700 new student spaces by the end of 2020. September 2019 The District Now Has 361 Portable Classrooms.

In the news

The Surrey School District was reported in the national news numerous times during the 1990s and 2000s, most notably for its stand on social issues.

Overcrowding

The Surrey School District has 361 portable classrooms for the 2019/2020 school year, 28 more than for the previous year. The district projects about 1100 students per year. Approximately 9000 students are in portables as of 2019/20.

Book banning

The District School Board was the focus of major media attention from 1997 to 2002 over its stand on not allowing books about families with same-sex parents to be included as optional learning resources. These books were requested by James Chamberlain, a

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

, to reflect on the realities of today's families and to teach his pupils about diversity and tolerance. A legal battle to overturn the decision to ban the three books went all the way to the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...

, where the school board's decision was overturned. The judgment, ''

Chamberlain v. Surrey School District No. 36 ''Chamberlain v Surrey School District No 36'', 0024 S.C.R. 710, 2002 SCC 86, was a case in which the Supreme Court of Canada held that a local school board could not impose its religious values by refusing to permit the use of books that sought ...

'', cited the need for families headed by same-sex couples to be respected. Chief Justice

Beverley McLachlin Beverley Marian McLachlin (born September 7, 1943) is a Canadian jurist and author who served as the 17th chief justice of Canada from 2000 to 2017. She is the longest-serving chief justice in Canadian history and the first woman to hold the p ...

dismissed the Board's concerns that

child A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

ren would be confused or misled by

classroom A classroom or schoolroom is a learning space in which both children and adults learn. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, ranging from preschools to universities, and may also be found in other places where education ...

information about same-sex parents. She pointed out that the children of same-sex parents are rubbing shoulders with children from more traditional families, and wrote: "Tolerance is always age-appropriate, children cannot learn unless they are exposed to views that differ from those they are taught at home." The legal fees ended up costing Surrey taxpayers over $1,200,000.

Drama production

In 2005, the Surrey School District made national news for cancelling production of ''

The Laramie Project ''The Laramie Project'' is a 2000 play by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project (specifically, Leigh Fondakowski, writer-director; Stephen Belber, Greg Pierotti, Barbara Pitts, Stephen Wangh, Amanda Gronich, Sara Lambert, ...

'', a play that deals with the murder of a gay university student, in Elgin Park Secondary. Advocates for the play noted that it is designed to teach tolerance toward

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

people. The school district's administration said that the play contains sex, violence and foul language and is not appropriate as family entertainment. The decision met with outrage from LGBT advocacy organization

Egale Canada Egale Canada (formerly Equality for Gays And Lesbians Everywhere) is an advocacy organization founded in 1986 by Les McAfee to advance equality for Canadian lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and their families, across Canada. ...

. A school in neighbouring

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

Lord Byng Secondary School Lord Byng Secondary School is a public secondary school located in the West Point Grey neighbourhood on the west side of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The school opened in 1925 and was named in honour of The Lord Byng of Vimy, a hero of Vi ...

, subsequently chose to stage the play.

Climate change

In May 2007, the Surrey School Board made national news when it voted to instruct teachers not to show

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-winning documentary on

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

, ''

An Inconvenient Truth ''An Inconvenient Truth'' is a 2006 American documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate people about global warming. The film features a slide show that, by Gore's own e ...

'', until trustees were able to review the film. On the issue of climate change, Board Trustee and social activist

Heather Stilwell Heather Stilwell (January 26, 1944 – December 4, 2010) was a Canadian political activist and former school trustee in Surrey, British Columbia. A staunch Roman Catholic, she was well known for her opinions opposing homosexuality, abortion, and ...

stated: "I am not sure. I mean I see evidence. I think there is climate change, there's no question about that. Whether what Al Gore says about it is the truth, I have questions."

Bible study

In early November 2009, a Cloverdale father, Paul Jubenvill, requested an extra-curricular, non-instructional, voluntarily-attended Bible club be established during lunch-hour at his sons' school, Colebrook Elementary. The school would not permit the club on their property, and the Surrey School District supported the school's position. The father argued that this ban violated the provincial BC Human Rights Code by disallowing a normally available service on the grounds of discrimination against religion. The school district was concerned that permitting the club may have given the appearance of the school endorsing a particular religious ideology. Jubenvill argued that there is a difference between endorsing a faith versus "accommodating" spiritual needs. A complaint was filed with the

BC Human Rights Tribunal The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal is a quasi-judicial human rights body in British Columbia, Canada. It was established under British Columbia's ''Human Rights Code''. It is responsible for "accepting, screening, mediating and adjudicati ...

; however, Jubenvill withdrew the complaint because he felt that the resulting media attention and the reaction it generated did not accurately represent his intentions and he preferred to address the matter with the school district out of the public eye. Some secondary schools in the School District have, or have had, overtly Christian clubs (for example, LA Matheson has a prayer club titled "PUSH", Semiahmoo Secondary had a Crossroad Christian club in 2008 and earlier years, and Fraser Heights Secondary had a Bible Club in 2007).

Roof collapse

At Colebrook Elementary in July 2010, a 75-foot portion of a roof over an exterior walkway collapsed, with no injuries reported. In 2011 the school district initiated legal action against the contractor and architect involved in the design and construction of the roof, which had been built in 1987.

Anti-discrimination code

In November 2013 the School Board adopted an anti-discrimination code to provide protection for students and staff against

homophobic Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...

and other forms of

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imba ...

. Approximately one third of all school districts in the province have policies against homophobic bullying.''Surrey School Board adopts anti-homophobia policy'', News1130.com, November 15, 2013
Retrieved January 21, 2014

Gallery

File:PA171445.JPG, Holly Elementary School by day File:hollyelementarymoon.JPG, The moon sets over Holly Elementary School, October 14, 2008. File:Princess Margaret Secondary (on 72 Avenue).jpg, Princess Margaret Secondary School File:Colebrook_elem.jpg, Colebrook Elementary School; evening shot of the south wing in October 2009 File:Surrey_Centre_Elementary.jpg, Surrey Centre Elementary School; Dec 2, 2009 (full moon) HDR shot at 11:10 pm File:CambridgeElementary.jpg, Cambridge Elementary School; May 1, 2011

References

External links

*
BC Ministry of Education - school information webpage

Supreme Court says B.C. school board wrong to ban same-sex books

Affidavit used in Chamberlain case

Book banning in Surrey, What happened?
{{School districts in British Columbia 36 Education in Surrey, British Columbia Educational institutions in Canada with year of establishment missing