The Vancouver School Board has released a list of 12 schools that will be considered for closure as part of the first stage of its school closure process.
The preliminary list is made up of four annexes, six elementary schools and two secondary schools. They are:
- Champlain Heights Annex
- Tecumseh Annex
- McBride Annex
- Queen Elizabeth Annex
- Dr. A.R. Lord
- Admiral Seymour
- Graham D. Bruce
- Sir Guy Carleton
- Queen Alexandra
- Pierre Elliott Trudeau
- Britannia Secondary
- Gladstone Secondary.
Queen Elizabeth Annex is the only school considered for closure on the West Side.
If all 12 schools are approved for closure, the VSB will save about $8.2 million per year.
In September, an in-depth report of each school will be presented to the Board of Trustees for review and consideration, as part of the second stage in the process. Only then will the trustees decide which schools remain on the list.
For schools that remain on the list, a two-month community consultation process will give the general public a chance to give feedback on how the closure would affect them. A report will be presented to trustees in December and schools approved for closure in January will be closed as early as June 30 of next year.
VSB chairman Mike Lombardi stressed at a Monday afternoon press conference that no decision to close any schools has been made.
Schools considered for the list were chosen based on seven factors outlined in the Long Range Facilities Plan (LRFP), a roadmap to 2030 that includes directions on seismic upgrades and the goal for utilization capacities in VSB facilities.
The facilities plan, approved in January, is a strategy reached by both the provincial government and the VSB, under former school board chairwoman Patti Bacchus. It states, Lombardi said, that VSB facilities need to meet the 95 per cent capacity target before seismic upgrades can be approved. “We will continue to fight for the abdication of 95 per cent utilization,” he said, reiterating a demand of VSB staff members and parents.
Education Minister Mike Bernier countered that comment in a telephone news conference an hour later.
“I’ve always said [the 95 per cent] is a flexible target, a goal to work towards,” he said. “We have never said that you won’t get seismic funding until you meet that capacity.”
Bernier said the Ministry of Education has spent more than $200 million on seismic upgrading, despite schools not meeting 95 per cent.
The VSB has completed 20 seismic upgrades, is currently working on five and has 61 schools in the district that still need to be seismically upgraded.
Trustees meet tonight to discuss the preliminary list of schools that may be considered for closure. The meeting will be held in the boardroom at 1580 West Broadway at 7 p.m.
In 2010, the VSB considered shutting down five East Side schools — Champlain Heights annex, Sir Richard McBride annex, Sir Guy Carleton, Queen Alexandra and Sir William Macdonald elementary schools. The school communities launched campaigns to save the schools. The trustees of the day opted not to close any of them.
