School Name History

Location

36367 Stephen Leacock Drive, Abbotsford, BC 

Opened

2000

The School

The Ministry of Education gave permission to Field and Marten Associates Inc. (the engineers) and Beautiworld Development Corporation (the developer) to build a school. It was the first school in B.C. to be built as a joint project with a private company. The school was not owned by the school district.  It leased the building for forty-nine years, which means the district was to make regular payments to the developer for forty-nine years or until it bought the building.  

The school was the second traditional school in the district. A traditional school emphasizes structure and basic skills, as well as teamwork among the staff, parents, and students. When registration started in January, there was a long line up of parents who wanted to sign up their children for the school. Some parents camped out days ahead in order to be at the beginning of the line. The school first opened in 2000 with two hundred thirty-three students in Kindergarten to Grade Seven. It contained eleven classrooms, a gym, a computer lab, a library, a special education area, and offices.

Origin of the Name

Auguston Elementary was named after its community, which was created and named by its developers. The word ‘august’ means grand, and ‘ton’ is an old English word for town. 

The Early Community

The community is located on Sumas Mountain. It was built by developers to be a self-contained neighbourhood where everything, including a school, was in walking distance. Over one thousand acres of land on Sumas Mountain were purchased from Clayburn Industries. The planning began in 1988 and construction started in 1998 when Mayor George Ferguson ceremonially lifted the first shovel of dirt. The names of the streets reflect Canadian arts and culture (e.g., Stephen Leacock Drive, Tom Thomson Crescent, and Emily Carr Terrace). When the area opened, it provided a church, a library, a daycare centre, and a school. Plans were in place for a community of up to six thousand people in two thousand homes.