Trustees respond to new ministry guidelines for school ‘utilization’
Posted April 13, 2019 8:26 pm.
Last Updated April 13, 2019 9:23 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The discussion about possible school closures will continue in Vancouver, even after a letter was issued by the minister of education Friday.
In a letter to all school districts, Rob Fleming indicated he was veering away from a ‘rigid and prescriptive process’ in assessing long-range facilities plans produced by school boards.
He says from now on, ministry will no longer need to approve the plans, and will no longer consider them necessary to justify individual project funding requests. He says the changes are meant to give boards more flexibility “to lay out a wide-ranging vision for their districts.”
RELATED: Minister of education relieves pressure from school districts contemplating school closures
His announcement comes as the Vancouver school board is in the midst of going through its 2019 long-range plan report, which identifies several schools as under-utilized. One of the report’s recommendations is to earmark some schools for closure for the 2020 school year.
“The tone and the interest in letting school districts to have more control is intriguing, but we would have to look at how that would affect our district and the plan within the district,” says Vancouver board chair Janet Fraser.
But she points out the exercise in addressing declining and growing enrollment within a district is still a useful one.
“It’s important that we have a long-range facilities plan. We have 100 facilities and we have challenges in some neighbourhoods where schools are full and areas that have declining enrollment.”
RELATED: Parents and students express their worries, as Vancouver trustees mull school closures
Vancouver trustee Allan Wong considers the ministry’s move a positive one.
“It requires further conversation. It does leave it more open in terms of educational values for the district,” he says. “We are moving away discussing numbers, to what works for the district.”
He hopes the focus moves away from how many kids are in schools to other issues such as funding for special needs, Indigenous students and arts programs.
Shaun Kalley is the chair of the Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council and he says the new guidelines should alleviate the stress parents feel whenever their schools appear to be at risk of closure.
“My understanding is that there has been some pressure on Vancouver MLAs to make some of these changes, and in that respect that’s very welcome,” he says. “These reports are meant to be high-level planning documents and yet there’s enough information in them so that parents start to understand what the implications are for their kids.”
RELATED: Vancouver school board facing school closures again
An info session to go over recommendations contained in the Vancouver school board’s long-range plans happens this Tuesday, April 16 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Vancouver Technical Secondary School.
The matter also comes up again for discussion among trustees on Wednesday.
