‘The school isn’t closed, but it’s closed to us:’ Parents frustrated by Vancouver’s kindergarten lottery

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — A decade ago, before he had kids, Brent Toderian moved into a home across the street from where a school would be built.

Toderian and his wife Renee de St. Croix are both city planners, they were deliberate about where they would move and why. They picked a home large enough to accommodate the family they hoped to have and one that would allow them to live a car-free life.

“We’re long-term thinkers. We chose specifically–ten years ago–a place that was literally right across the street from where the new Crosstown Elementary school would be,” Toderian says.

Their son is now about to enter kindergarten, but it won’t be at the school he can see from his bedroom window.

Our family is frustrated & demoralized tonight.

10+ years ago we chose a downtown Vancouver home specifically to start a family literally right across the street from where the new Crosstown Elementary school was to be built.

Across the street.

Now they won’t let him go there.

— Brent Toderian (@BrentToderian) February 20, 2020

Crosstown Elementary has a lottery system. There aren’t enough spaces in the kindergarten class to accommodate all the kids who want to attend, which threw a wrench in the family’s carefully laid plans.

“To say that caused stress for us and for many families who are our neighbours is a massive understatement,” Toderian says.

When his son wasn’t chosen in Wednesday’s lottery he says he and his wife were “devastated.”

“It felt like what it must feel like for families when their school closes after they’ve made all their plans. The school isn’t closed, but it’s closed to us,” he says.

We had big plans to participate in the school, & had built a shared community with fellow parents during the daycare years (maybe half will get spots) — feels like we’ve lost the foundation of our community. Like our school closed. But it didn’t. We’ll see it every single day.

— Brent Toderian (@BrentToderian) February 20, 2020

“I’m still struggling to figure out the best way to tell my little boy that he can’t go to the school that he has been told his whole life he will be going to.”

There’s an option to put him on the waiting list, but there are 45 kids on that list and the odds are slim. He’ll either have to go to a private school nearby, or commute out of the area.

There is a strong sense of community among parents in Toderian’s neighbourhood, and no one is celebrating the lottery results.

“The parents who got the good news have been understandably muted. They haven’t wanted to share their good news when they know their neighbours are getting bad news”

Toderian says the lack of planning and flexibility when it comes to urban schools in growing areas is acutely frustrating.

“The funding model from the province relative to the building of school sites continues to be broken,” he says, adding urban schools don’t have the same flexibility suburban ones have when it comes to to accommodating more students in portables.

A school for nearby Olympic Village was set to be built this year, but funding hasn’t yet been secured.

Toderian says until schools are planned and funded to accommodate all the children in a neighbourhood, the city will fall short of its goals of establishing vibrant, walkable and sustainable communtities

Meanwhile, parents held a rally at the Creekside Community Centre against the lottery system tonight.