Parents at Virginia Park Elementary want the school to be replaced by a new building, but in the same neighbourhood. (CBC)

Parents in a neighbourhood in the east end of St. John's are accusing Newfoundland and Labrador's largest school board of pandering to the wealthy.

The planning committee of the Eastern School District is recommending that a new school to replace aging Virginia Park Elementary be built on Snow's Lane, near subdivisions richer than the working class neighbourhood where the school presently sits.

Peter Whittle, who co-chairs the Virginia Park school council, said the recommendation goes against the board's own policy of promoting community-based schools.

"One hates to talk about the fact that there seems to be a bit of social engineering on the go here, [but] the socioeconomic demographics have to be looked at," Whittle told CBC News.

"I think if anyone wanted to look at the socioeconomic spread in the east end of St. John's, they would see a pattern, and that pattern will show you that there has been an attempt to marginalize this school and eventually close it out."

The recommendation is scheduled to be tabled at a school board meeting on Wednesday night, and many Virginia Park parents are expected to argue against it.

Parents in the neighbourhood had lobbied to have the old building replaced by a new school in the neighbourhood.

The board's planning committee is suggesting that the new school should be put near expanding subdivisions near the Stavanger Drive shopping district.

Whittle said the board should stick with principles laid out during the last school reform process, in which denominational schools were replaced with a community school model.

"This is in the heart of the community," he said.

"Ninety, 95 per cent of our children walk to school every day. The board and the provincial government talk about healthy living and community schools — well, we fit into that model," he said.

"We are a model of a community school."

School closures and relocations have long been a contentious issue in St. John's, where many older schools are clustered in neighbourhoods no longer populated by young children, while parents in new subdivisions have been calling for schools closer to their homes.