Garibaldi annex is safe for at least one more school year after trustees agreed it met growth targets required to keep its doors open.

The East Side school at 1025 Slocan St. was threatened with closure in 2007 after struggling with low enrolment. The community around the school objected, prompting the board to give it three years to boost enrolment—it needed to attract at least 36 more new students to the district by this past September or it would be closed by June 2011. The deal protected the school from the closure process five other East Side schools are now undergoing. Garibaldi was considered a separate case and its immediate future was decided at Monday night’s board meeting. Parent Advisory Council chairman Halford Milne was thrilled to hear the news. “This has been a great success story and the school is open for new student registration,” he said Monday.

Garibaldi houses a kindergarten to Grade 4 program, a homelearners program and the Vancouver Learning Network elementary program.

The annex also has relationships with organizations, including Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House, and offers an early childhood drop-in program and computer classes for adults.

During the three-year period, the school’s enrolment grew by 43, according to the VSB’s calculations that only count new students to the district.

Although Garibaldi is spared from closure for the 2011/12 school year, there’s no guarantee it will survive after that. The district’s overall enrolment has dropped since Garibaldi entered the agreement with the school board.

If the district had not committed to the three-year plan, Garibaldi likely would have landed on the school closure short list, senior staff noted in Monday’s report to the board. “As with the schools on the closure consideration list, Garibaldi continues to be a site where enrolment is low and where facility usage is sub-optimal,” the report states.

Garibaldi will be assessed as part of annual facility reviews of all schools based on the district’s financial and enrolment concerns.

“If we continue to have [empty] space and we continue to have financial pressure it will be an area that is scrutinized to look for possible savings that could be used to minimize the impact of additional funding cuts on education programs,” board chair Patti Bacchus told the Courier Tuesday. “The timing is awful. In the case of Garibaldi, they worked really hard. They did exactly what was agreed upon. Based on that alone, it seems unfair that they would still be facing this potential threat, but it’s the reality of the worsening financial context and the increasing declines in enrolment. It does create that perfect storm of factors where there’s no way it can be avoided without putting more pressure on some other area of the organization.”

Milne would have preferred an indefinite commitment from the district to keep Garibaldi open because uncertainty can affect enrolment—the school lost 15 prospective new students when school closure rumours erupted last spring—but he recognizes the annex is not entitled to be treated differently than other Vancouver schools.

“Unfortunately, there are no free passes for any school in this climate of underfunding by the provincial ministry, but we have a great community behind us and a unique and vibrant school that has survived tremendous pressure. So I am pleased. We will continue to grow our school, advocate for it, and to improve it beyond scrutiny,” Milne said.

noconnor@vancourier.com

Twitter: @Naoibh