Secondary · Burquitlam · French Immersion Continuation
Updated September 2026 · Craig Johnston, REALTOR® V99960
A Coquitlam REALTOR®'s read on Dr. Charles Best Secondary — what the school offers, which neighbourhoods feed in, and what to know about the catchment housing in Burquitlam · Como Lake corridor.
Quick Answer
What should you know about Dr. Charles Best?
École Dr. Charles Best Secondary School — École Dr. Charles Best Secondary School is a secondary school in Coquitlam, serving grades 9–12 in the Burquitlam · Como Lake corridor area. SD43's primary Coquitlam-side French Immersion secondary continuation. Address: 2525 Como Lake Avenue, V3J 3R8. Phone 604-461-5581.
Verify your exact address
Check whether your address is actually inside the Dr. Charles Best Secondary catchment.
SD43 catchments are set by address, not by neighbourhood name. Enter your street in the district’s official School Locator to see the schools that serve your home. This is the authoritative source.
Verified school facts · SD43
School type
Secondary
Grades
9–12
District
SD43 (Coquitlam School District)
Address
2525 Como Lake Avenue, Coquitlam, BC V3J 3R8
Phone
Website
Administration (2025–26)
Dave Cyr (Principal)
VP: Confirm current VP roster with the school office.
Enrolment
Confirm current-year enrolment with the school office.
School hours
Confirm the current year's bell schedule directly with the school at 604-461-5581.
Local representation
School Trustee: SD43 Board of Education contact → · MLA: Coquitlam-Maillardville
In-catchment registration
Cross-catchment / school of choice
Catchment locator
School details verified against the SD43 school page (June 2026). Bell schedules, administrators, and program details can change year to year — confirm the current year directly with the school office before relying on any specific number.
Enrolment snapshot
Real, sourced enrolment figures for Dr. Charles Best Secondary — drawn from a published third-party school-data platform's per-grade profile for this school, so you're not relying on a guess.
Current enrolment
1,672 students
2025–2026 school year
Grades served
9–12
French Immersion continuation hub
Enrolment by grade
School Year 2025–2026
Honest gap: the four grade-level figures above (351 + 416 + 410 + 452 = 1,629) were read directly from the school's published enrolment profile, but they do not sum to the same source's reported current enrolment of 1,672 — a 43-student difference the platform itself doesn't reconcile. Rather than estimate or adjust either number to make them match, we're publishing both exactly as published.
Enrolment sourced from School Guide's published school-data profile for Dr. Charles Best Secondary (schoolguide.vtco.app), retrieved September 2026 (School Year 2025–2026).
What this school is best known for
École Dr. Charles Best is one of two SD43 secondary French Immersion continuation hubs (alongside Riverside on the PoCo side). The FI program was added in 2001 and pairs Bilingual Dogwood graduation with the standard English-track academics. The school is named for Charles Best, the Canadian co-discoverer of insulin — a quiet nod to its science/STEM identity.
Programs & academic profile
Bilingual Dogwood graduation pathway. Continued FI students from Maillard Middle and Banting Middle.
Full English-track academics with broad elective catalogue.
Sciences, technology, applied skills.
Music, band, drama.
Athletics across multiple sports.
District-wide, under SD43's Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement. Indigenous Support Teachers and Child & Youth Care Workers, scholarships, land-based learning, and the All Nations Canoe Event, serving grades K–12 across SD43.
District-wide, grades K–12. Full-year (10-month) and summer options, with ESL and Culture Programming and a Teacher Training Program; qualifying secondary students can access AP and IB coursework.
Catchment, feeders & cross-catchment
Burquitlam, Como Lake, and parts of central Coquitlam. The French Immersion stream draws district-wide.
École Maillard Middle (FI continuation), Banting Middle (FI), Hillcrest Middle.
Post-secondary.
SD43 allows cross-catchment enrolment when space permits, allocated by lottery with in-district and sibling priority. SD43 cross-catchment policy →
Catchment lines run down individual streets and can put one side of a road in one catchment and the opposite side in the next. Always verify a specific address with the SD43 school locator before relying on any boundary statement.
Extracurriculars · sports · clubs
Programs change year to year. Confirm the current season's club and sport list on the school's Programs / Clubs page.
Inside the catchment · housing read
Inside the Dr. Charles Best Secondary catchment in Burquitlam · Como Lake corridor, you're looking at established residential streets. Verify the exact catchment for your address through the SD43 locator before committing — boundary lines can run down individual streets.
Frequently asked questions
Dr. Charles Best Secondary is an SD43 grade 9–12 secondary school. A primary French Immersion continuation hub for SD43 (FI added 2001) — pairs the Bilingual Dogwood pathway with full English-track academics. Named for the Canadian co-discoverer of insulin.
A primary French Immersion continuation hub for SD43 (FI added 2001) — pairs the Bilingual Dogwood pathway with full English-track academics. Named for the Canadian co-discoverer of insulin.
Burquitlam, Como Lake, and parts of central Coquitlam. The French Immersion stream draws district-wide. Verify a specific address through the SD43 school locator.
Dave Cyr.
École Maillard Middle (FI continuation), Banting Middle (FI), Hillcrest Middle.
Yes — through the SD43 cross-catchment / school-of-choice process when space permits. Placement is by lottery with in-district and sibling priority.
No. SD43 has discontinued regular bus transportation district-wide.
Grades 9, 10, 11, and 12.
2525 Como Lake Avenue, Coquitlam, BC V3J 3R8. Phone 604-461-5581.
Continue your Coquitlam school research
Main hub
The full SD43 schools guide for the Tri-Cities.
Hub
Ranked guide to the top Coquitlam SD43 schools.
Programs
Every SD43 French Immersion entry point.
Private
Independent schools serving Coquitlam, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam.
Sources & methodology
School facts verified against the SD43 Dr. Charles Best Secondary school page, the SD43 Board of Education / Trustees page, and the SD43 school locator. Catchment, registration, and cross-catchment information from SD43's cross-catchment policy page. Real estate commentary is the professional opinion of Craig Johnston, REALTOR® license V99960, working under The MACNABS at Royal LePage Elite West and serving the SD43 Tri-Cities market.
Page reviewed and dated June 2026; enrolment and program details refreshed September 2026. License V99960 · BCFSA-regulated. Confirm school program details with the school office before relying on them for an enrolment decision.
Enrolment (1,672 students, 2025–2026; by grade: Grade 9 – 351, Grade 10 – 416, Grade 11 – 410, Grade 12 – 452 — these four figures sum to 1,629, a 43-student gap against the platform's reported total that we disclose rather than paper over) and the Indigenous Education Support and SD43 International Student Program listings were verified directly against Dr. Charles Best Secondary's published profile on the School Guide school-data platform (schoolguide.vtco.app), retrieved September 2026. All SD43.bc.ca links on this page were re-verified September 2026 after SD43 relaunched its website — the previous SharePoint-style URLs (school pages, the locator page, registration, cross-catchment) all now 404 or redirect to the SD43 homepage. This same link rot is very likely present across the rest of the school-guide pages and should be swept sitewide, not just fixed on this one.
A long-time Tri-Cities resident and licensed REALTOR®, Craig knows the catchment streets, the boundary risks, and the homes that come up inside the Dr. Charles Best Secondary catchment before they hit the public market.
Tri-Cities monthly
August 2026 Coquitlam detached HPI is $1,599,100, -5.9% YoY. What that means for your buy or sell decision — without the salesy fluff. One email per month. Unsubscribe anytime.
No spam, no listings flood, no marketing automation games. Genuine monthly update from a 47+ year Tri-Cities resident.
Thinking about the move, not just the school?
If you're weighing a move into this catchment, the hard part usually isn't the school — it's the timing and the tax math: when to sell your current home, how the property-transfer-tax works on the next one, and how to buy into the right catchment without overpaying. That's the work I focus on across the Tri-Cities. Start with the move-up guide, then get a no-obligation read on what your current home could sell for today.
Worth reading next
Neighbouring catchments and the seller pages for families already inside this one.