By Neil Corbett – Maple Ridge News
Kids brought some good ideas to the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school district student forum, including what a proposed new school in Albion should look like.
Josh Nichols, a student leader and Grade 12 at Thomas Haney secondary, said he and fellow forum organizer Courtney Connor wanted to ensure the event did not simply represent the highest achieving students, or leadership students. It brought together 210 young people representing every secondary and elementary school in the district, including students from Environmental School and trades programs.
Because of that, the forum offered a “wide spectrum of ideas in our district,” he said.
He said students appreciate being asked what they think.
“I really like how they asked us for our opinion,” he said. “I always like it when they increase the student voice.”
Nichols said he heard some great ideas during the forum last Wednesday. For example, when talking about features of a new school that they would love, ideas included a forested campus, featuring some covered study areas where students could work outdoors. And they wanted lots of big windows, so they could see outside, and so the school would be bright with natural light.
He also liked the idea of a high school playground.
“Which is awesome – I would be totally cool with that,” he said. “I’ve heard we don’t stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing.”
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