Closing schools will come at too high a cost for minimal savings, according to NDP MLA Adrian Dix.

Dix made that point at a community meeting he organized in the Collingwood neighbourhood July 15. It attracted about 75 people hoping to save Bruce, Carleton and Collingwood schools—three of among 11 mostly East Side elementaries and annexes that landed on a preliminary list of schools the VSB is considering shutting down to save money. Garibaldi annex went through a closure process a couple years ago, and trustees will consider its fate, based on enrolment goals, this September.

The schools on the so-called pre-notification list were chosen due to factors including low enrolment, under-utilization and availability of space at neighbouring schools.

Senior staff are analyzing each of the schools this summer and will report to trustees in late September or early October. At that point, the board will decide which, if any, of the schools will proceed to public consultation. A final decision about schools that remain on the list will be made by the end of December for a June 2011 closure.

Closing a typical annex would save about $200,000, while shutting down an elementary would save roughly $400,000, according to the VSB.

Dix, MLA for Vancouver Kingsway, argues the Collingwood neighbourhood has been unfairly targeted. He said 1,800 students attend schools the board is considering for closure and 750 of those students go to the three schools named in Collingwood. He said the neighbourhood represents four per cent of Vancouver’s population, but 42 per cent of the students who may be affected by closures live in Collingwood.

“We think that’s profoundly unfair, but that’s the situation we’re faced with now,” he told the crowd. “What we’re talking about is disrupting a whole neighbourhood in the city for what I believe are minimal savings.”

Dix, who blamed the provincial government for not funding public education properly, wants school supporters to think about emotional and technical arguments as to why the three schools should remain open. He believes it needs to be done this summer, before a second closure list, which might include fewer schools, is unveiled in the fall.

“The Vancouver School Board has not explained why any of the schools are on the list. They won’t tell us until October. As a community we need to make a case why all three of those schools should be kept open. And we need to send that message to the province,” he said.

Dix pointed out Collingwood annex is a new school, which has a growing enrolment, and no school with a growing enrolment has been closed in B.C.

Carleton, he continued, is a fairly large school of 395 students, all its rooms are being used, and no B.C. schools with that high an enrolment have been closed. As for Bruce, Dix said it had portables as recently as three years ago and he maintains the VSB and provincial government are overstating the capacity of schools, which need space for purposes other than classrooms such as computer rooms.

Several speakers at the meeting suspected Carleton is being targeted for closure because it needs costly seismic upgrading, which has been promised for years, but has yet to happen. Others questioned why the closure list includes schools that are disproportionately on the East Side, while one speaker suggested clarifying the VSB’s rental policy, with an eye to seeing more community groups use school space to help justify the schools’ continued existence.

Dix, meantime, believes the situation is urgent. “If schools are closed I think we’re not going to get them back,” he said.

noconnor@vancourier.com