More than 400 parents, students and school staff crowded into Cedar Secondary School on a Wednesday evening in June 2013 for the first public forum on Nanaimo's draft 10-year facilities plan, according to the Nanaimo News Bulletin. The proposal on the table would have closed every elementary school in the Cedar area, sent the high school students to John Barsby Secondary in Nanaimo, and turned Cedar Community Secondary School itself into an elementary school with an arts program. Snuneymuxw First Nation Chief Doug White III opened the meeting by saying the plan had been drawn up without his nation.
Three years later the building was a high school again. In between came a petition to the legislature, a court case, a school board election, a half-finished renovation and a 6-3 vote. The facts of the closure of Cedar Community Secondary School are worth setting down in order, because each step changed what the next board could do.
The 2013 facilities plan and a 22-kilometre walk
The plan grew out of a report by consultant Doug Player, a former West Vancouver superintendent, released in April 2013. By May the draft plan, as the News Bulletin summarized it, called for closing a net total of 10 school facilities over a decade.
The first organized response came from South Wellington, one of the schools slated to close first. Parents there formed Stand Up for Public Education Rights and, on a Saturday in late May 2013, walked 22 kilometres from MLA Doug Routley's constituency office in Ladysmith to his office at Southgate Mall in Nanaimo. More than 50 people took part, some for the whole distance, and the walk took about four and a half hours. Spokeswoman Tiffany Nelson argued that rural schooling was "an equally valid lifestyle and educational choice" and that the group did not want "a bigger is better agenda pushed on communities." Board chair Jamie Brennan answered that the plan was about better learning environments, not saving money, and that "everything is up in the air until the 26th of June."
At the Cedar forum, the objections were practical. Parent Kathie Aarsen worried that busing teenagers into Barsby would push some to drop out. Wendy Wise of the North Oyster parent group said parents accepted that the district could not run half-empty buildings, but argued that students should be moved into whichever school was in better condition.
What trustees decided, and who pushed back
The board went ahead with the Cedar portion. As the News Bulletin reported in July, trustees had voted to close South Wellington Elementary immediately, close Cedar Secondary at the end of June 2014 with students going to John Barsby or Ladysmith Secondary, close Woodbank Primary and North Cedar Intermediate in June 2015, and reopen the high school building as an elementary school in 2015-16.
About 150 residents met days later and formed Save Cedar Schools, with Steve Rae as spokesman. Their petition, with more than 500 signatures, asked Education Minister Peter Fassbender to send a special advisor, and Routley took it to the legislature. Rae called the decision "a rushed judgment." Brennan said the Cedar element was "a key component because of our ability to do it without needing assistance from the provincial government," since the renovation could be paid from the district's annual facilities grant.
Building safety ran through the debate in the background. A Times Colonist report in October 2013 listed the North Cedar Intermediate gym among district facilities still in use with a high seismic risk rating. It also noted that closing South Wellington had removed the need for a $1-million seismic project there. If you have heard the closures described as a response to unsafe, half-empty schools, this is the documented part of that claim: specific rooms, rated by engineers, in buildings the plan already proposed to close or replace.
Snuneymuxw goes to court
In September 2013, Snuneymuxw announced legal action. White said the nation paid the district $1.1 million a year to educate its children and had not been meaningfully engaged. Brennan replied that the district had sent letters and made at least six phone calls, and had received no response from Snuneymuxw or Stz'uminus.
The application for judicial review was filed in December 2013, asking the B.C. Supreme Court to declare the decisions to close Cedar Community Secondary, Woodbank and North Cedar null and void. The News Bulletin reported the result on July 1, 2014: the judge, named in the coverage as Hinkson, dismissed the case. He found the closures had no effect on Snuneymuxw aboriginal or treaty rights, and wrote that holding a school board to the Crown's standard of consultation would impair it "to the point of administrative paralysis." He added that it would have been preferable to consult Snuneymuxw during the drafting, but that the later public process was adequate.
By the time the ruling was reported, Cedar Secondary had already held its last classes as a high school, at the end of June 2014.
A renovation half-built, and a new board
Converting a high school into an elementary school is a major capital project in the Ministry of Education's terms, as district planning director Pete Sabo explained in March 2014. The district earmarked $1 million from its 2014-15 annual facilities grant and expected another $1 million the following year, against a total estimate of about $2 million. Ladysmith Secondary received $150,000 for the Grade 7 students it would absorb.
The 2014 school board election changed the arithmetic. Three Save Cedar Schools members ran and all three won, the Times Colonist reported, Rae among them, and he became board chair. In December 2014 the new board voted for a 30-day halt on construction and contracts. By then playfield, steel-stud framing and plumbing work were complete or nearly so, the project estimate stood at about $2.36 million, and more than half of that year's grant money had been spent. Brennan and trustee Bill Robinson voted against the pause.
In April 2015 the board voted 6-3 to reopen Cedar as a secondary school in September 2016, with Brennan, Robinson and Tania Brzovic opposed. Brzovic said the board was "doing things backwards" by fixing one piece before seeing a revised facilities plan. The Times Colonist reported that during 2014-15 up to 60 Cedar students were bused to Barsby while about 250 attended Ladysmith Secondary, where busing had not been covered.
Dover Bay vice-principal Darcy Hoff was named principal in January 2016. On the eve of reopening, student Matthew Aarsen described catching a bus at Woodbank at 7:30 a.m. to reach Ladysmith for 8:15 and using the ride to sleep. His new commute, he said, would be a two-minute drive.
Four more closures and a deficit
The reversal did not end closures elsewhere in the district. In June 2015, superintendent John Blain presented an updated plan recommending four: Departure Bay Eco-School at 67 per cent capacity, North Cedar Intermediate at 54, Rutherford Elementary at 75 and Woodlands Secondary at 85. The district had received more than $12 million in funding protection over four years and expected 2015-16 to be the last.
In December 2015 the board, citing a $2.7-million structural deficit, voted to close Woodlands and to close Rutherford by 2017 if the province funded an expansion at Frank J. Ney; the business committee had passed the Rutherford motion 5-4. Trustees also overruled staff on the Cedar elementaries, keeping North Cedar's larger property and moving Woodbank's students there to form Cedar Elementary in 2016-17. Rutherford Elementary on Hammond Bay Road did shut, in 2018, and reopened for 2025-26 after seven years.
School land produced its own fights. Pioneer Forest, a 3.2-hectare urban woodland, was sold by the city to the school board in 1997 for about $800,000. In 2012 Friends of Pioneer Forest argued that a 1983 cabinet order still restricted it to park use, while Brennan said the district owned it and wanted to "realize as much from that property as we can." The Bulletin noted it was also used as one of the city's designated dog areas; Nanaimo now has 12 off-leash dog parks, most of them one-year pilots that became permanent.
The finances of Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools, which now runs 28 elementary and six secondary schools, look different a decade on. In May 2025 trustees passed a $228.6-million budget for 15,640 projected students, with more than $171 million for salaries and benefits, including $81.5 million for teachers and $14.6 million each for education assistants and support staff. Brzovic, still on the board, noted that the district was one of the few in B.C. not facing a deficit.
Across the boundary in School District 69
The Qualicum district went through its own consolidation at the same time. At a special meeting in late April 2014, with about 200 people present, trustees facing a large deficit and 6,000 spaces for 4,000 students voted to close Parksville Elementary, Qualicum Beach Elementary and French Creek Community School in Coombs, and to move Winchelsea Elementary's students elsewhere. The buildings were kept rather than sold: Qualicum Beach Elementary became Qualicum Commons, Parksville Elementary became Craig Street Commons, and Winchelsea became home to an alternate school and district services.
The question has returned there. In late 2024 the Qualicum board weighed closing both commons buildings, which together needed between $4 million and $5 million of capital work. By mid-2025 it faced a $2.5-million funding deficit and layoffs.
The Cedar buildings now
The schools closed in the Cedar area have found other uses. Snuneymuxw leased the Woodbank site in 2018, and in July 2022 it opened there as the Snuneymuxw Learning Academy, a Hul'q'umi'num' language centre. The same grounds host the Cedar farmers market on Sundays from Mother's Day to the end of October. South Wellington School, open from 1969 until 2013, reopened in August 2026 as a community centre after a $4.4-million upgrade, saved from the demolition the district had once planned.
Cedar Community Secondary School still serves Cedar, Cinnabar Valley and Qwam Qwum Stuwixwulh students. When overcrowding at Nanaimo District Secondary prompted a 2023 proposal to send Gabriola students to Cedar instead, district staff described the effect bluntly: even with 400 students, Cedar would remain "an abnormally small secondary school for a school so close to an urban area." Other education and council stories are collected under Civic Nanaimo.
That sentence restates, in a staff report written by the same district, the concern the 2013 plan was built around. What it does not say is what size would be large enough.
Questions
Is Cedar Community Secondary School open today?
Yes. It reopened in September 2016 under Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools and runs its own website and course calendar. A 2023 district report said it takes students from Cedar, Cinnabar Valley and Qwam Qwum Stuwixwulh elementary schools.
Why did Nanaimo's school board want to close Cedar Secondary?
The 2013 facilities plan aimed to move older students to John Barsby and turn the Cedar building into one large elementary school for the area. Board chair Steve Rae later said the closure was also meant to raise enrolment at other district high schools.
Which schools closed in the Cedar area?
South Wellington Elementary closed in June 2013 and Cedar Secondary in June 2014. Woodbank Primary closed in June 2016, when its students joined North Cedar Intermediate to form Cedar Elementary.
Where did Cedar students go while the high school was closed?
For 2014-15, the Times Colonist reported up to 60 students bused to John Barsby Secondary and about 250 attending Ladysmith Secondary. Trustees approved busing to Ladysmith for Cinnabar and Cedar-area students for 2015-16.
What happened to Snuneymuxw First Nation's lawsuit?
A B.C. Supreme Court judge dismissed the judicial review in mid-2014, the News Bulletin reported on July 1 of that year. The ruling found the closures did not affect Snuneymuxw aboriginal or treaty rights and that the public consultation had been adequate.
How much did the elementary conversion cost?
District staff estimated about $2 million in March 2014. By December 2014 the figure was about $2.36 million, including roughly $361,000 for a playing field, and work stopped that month when the new board ordered a 30-day pause.
What is the School District 68 budget?
Trustees approved a 2025-26 budget of $228.6 million in May 2025, with projected enrolment of 15,640 full-time students. More than $171 million of it was set aside for salaries and benefits.
Did School District 69 close schools at the same time?
Yes. In 2014 the Qualicum district voted to close Parksville Elementary, Qualicum Beach Elementary and French Creek Community School in Coombs, and to move Winchelsea Elementary's students to other schools.
What is the Pioneer Forest dispute?
Pioneer Forest is a 3.2-hectare wooded lot the City of Nanaimo sold to the school district in 1997. In 2012 a residents' group argued that a 1983 cabinet order still required it to be used as a park, while the board chair said the district owned it and wanted to realize value from it.
What became of the Woodbank school building?
Snuneymuxw First Nation leased the site in 2018. In July 2022 it opened there as the Snuneymuxw Learning Academy, a centre for Hul'q'umi'num' language learning that also houses a traditional medicines clinic.
Sources
- Group stages walk to protest school facilities plan, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2013-05-28
- Parents emotional over school closures, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2013-06-16
- Cedar parents, Snuneymuxw challenge district on school closure plan, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2013-07-19
- Snuneymuxw threatens legal action on closures, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2013-09-26
- Seismic tests in Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district show several at-risk buildings still being used, Times Colonist, 2013-10-06
- Snuneymuxw files lawsuit over closures, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2013-12-10
- TOP NEWS STORIES: Protests greet school consolidation plan, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2014-01-02
- Provincial grant earmarked for Cedar school conversion, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2014-03-20
- Trustees vote to close four schools in Parksville, Qualicum Beach and Coombs, Parksville Qualicum Beach News, 2014-05-01
- Judge dismisses case against Nanaimo school district over south-end facilities plan, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2014-07-01
- Trustees vote to halt Cedar school work, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2014-12-17
- Work stoppage could delay Cedar school opening, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2014-12-22
- A year after closing, trustees vote to reopen Cedar Secondary School, Times Colonist, 2015-04-24
- Nanaimo trustees give green light to re-open Cedar as a secondary school, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2015-04-23
- Plan advises closure of four Nanaimo schools, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2015-06-15
- UPDATE: Nanaimo school board votes to close schools, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2015-12-03
- Woodbank and North Cedar schools to be amalgamated, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2015-12-08
- Closed schools like Parksville Elementary are not for sale, Parksville Qualicum Beach News, 2015-12-16
- Nanaimo school district appoints Cedar Secondary and Learn at Home principals, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2016-01-20
- Cedar students head back to school, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2016-09-01
- Pioneer Forest group threatens legal action if park status not upheld, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2012-10-11
- Snuneymuxw, school district announce deal for old Woodbank school site, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2018-08-15
- Former Nanaimo elementary school becomes Snuneymuxw Learning Academy, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2022-07-25
- Sending Gabriola students to Cedar Secondary one option to relieve overcrowding at NDSS, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2023-01-26
- Qualicum School District to make decision on 'commons' closures in January, Parksville Qualicum Beach News, 2024-11-28
- Nanaimo-Ladysmith trustees pass $229-million budget for next school year, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2025-06-12
- Vancouver Island school district faces $2.5M funding deficit, layoffs loom, Parksville Qualicum Beach News (via Nanaimo News Bulletin), 2025-06-03
- Nanaimo South Wellington Community Centre opens to public, Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2026-08-24
- Cedar Community Secondary School, Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools
