NPA FACES PUBLIC UPROAR OVER SCHOOL CLOSURE


PV Vancouver Bureau

After two years of ducking under the radar, the right-wing Non-Partisan Alliance majority on the Vancouver school board is facing major public opposition. The NPA's plan to close Queen Elizabeth Annex K-3 public school on Vancouver's west side has sparked an uproar, as parents demand answers to important questions about the closure's impact on 129 students.

     More broadly, the NPA is facing challenges to its entire facilities review, which could ultimately mean dozens of school closures. With their close links to the Liberal government of Gordon Campbell, the NPA trustees shrink from any public criticism of provincial funding guidelines, the source of perennial budget headaches for the Vancouver board. Instead, the NPA risks taking the full brunt of voter anger at the polls next November.

     Some three hundred people took part in the final public forum on the planned Queen Elizabeth Annex closure. Parents have circulated thousands of flyers in the Dunbar community, and have taken their case directly to the trustees, MLAs, and officials at the University of British Columbia.

     As one news release from parents pointed out, "there are now rumours from some insiders that the VSB and the privately owned St. George's (a boy's school) have made a deal under the table, and that the VSB has made a plan to sell QE Annex, a public school, to St. George's. St. George's will use this good deal for their own kindergarten to grade 3 ... or to build an ice rink for fun. St. George's is for boys only. Right now QEA is a well-known outstanding dual-track school for both boys and girls - the only public English and French elementary school in the middle of the Dunbar area."

     Meanwhile, the three Coalition of Progressive Electors trustees on the nine-member board have condemned plans to sell the Annex.

     "The current approach to school reorganization in the UBC- Dunbar area by Vancouver NPA School Board Trustees is right off the wall," said COPE Trustee Al Blakey.

     The NPA plan for reorganization of schools on the west side is based on a yet-to-be-negotiated agreement between the Vancouver School Board and UBC for lease of a vacant National Research Council building to accommodate overcrowded University Hill Secondary School students. Only recently have parents become aware of the full implications of the plan.

     "This is a troubling and precedent-setting change for the funding of new schools by the provincial government," said COPE Trustee Allan Wong. "Previously, Victoria fully funded new schools, as in the recent construction of Elsie Roy and Collingwood Neighbourhood schools in Vancouver. Now Victoria is abdicating its responsibility with an all too willing NPA School Board that is complicit in the closure and sale of a valuable public asset at Queen Elizabeth Annex."

     The VSB's 19-day "consultation schedule" has been described as "shocking" by COPE trustee Sharon Gregson, who says the closure will be "an enormous and unwarranted loss to this community."

     "The UBC-Dunbar plan has so many drawbacks, based as it is on an absurd 95 per cent school occupancy requirement from the province. The plan is a fragmented and skewed approach that has caused so much community grief that the entire plan should be dumped," said Gregson. "One has to ask when and where the next For Sale sign is going to appear on another Vancouver school. The UBC/Dunbar plan should be redrawn with meaningful and extended input from the community."

     Blakey has called the NPA's UBC/Dunbar Street Study of school closures "utter stupidity." The study reviews only one part of the entire district in isolation, resulting in a fragmented approach to a city-wide problem.

     "There is an urgent need for proper facilities for U Hill students, as their current school is cramped and inadequate," said Blakey, "but this rushed plan skews the entire proposal and could impact negatively on other schools in the Dunbar area."

     The VSB has also announced the possible closure of another annex school, Garibaldi, on the Eastside, without considering the district-wide implications. With an average of 100 students each, the district's 16 small, closely knit annexes have provided services for children from kindergarten to Grades 3 and 4 for over 45 years. So far there has been no district-wide consultation with parents and teachers about the continued existence of annexes.  

     In a related issue, not a single Vancouver school has been approved for seismic upgrading since the NPA regained a majority in 2005. Trustee Wong notes that the UBC/Dunbar Study schedules U Hill Secondary and Queen Elizabeth Main Elementary for seismic upgrading, bumping other schools that were previously accorded a higher priority. Wong calls this an example of how the current isolated approach is distorting district-wide planning.

     Concerns are also increasing about the impact of the provincial funding squeeze on seismic upgrades. Thousands of students and staff remain at risk in dozens of schools built long before modern building codes. But provincial guidelines call for much smaller new replacement schools, which will inevitably create a more cramped learning environment. The rules will have a sharper negative impact on the lower-income east side, where parents have far more limited scope for fundraising to improve new facilities. But the problem extends right across the district, putting a new spotlight on the Liberal under-funding of public education.

Found at: http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint12/08_NPA_FACES_PUBLIC_UPROAR_OVER_SCHOOL_CLOSURE.html