The ABC dominated Vancouver School Board is seriously considering the permanent closure of up to eleven schools, including at least two high schools. Where are these schools located? You guessed it – they are almost all on the east side.
The ABC School Trustees have so far refused to identify which specific schools might be on the chopping block. While we do not know the exact number of students who might be impacted, it will likely affect over two thousand learners who attend these neighbourhood schools.
The School Board’s draft 2023/2024 budget will not be tabled for discussion until April 3rd. At the moment, even other School Trustees are currently in the dark about what is being planned.
Currently, many students are able to walk to school, contributing to their health and fitness while cutting down on local traffic and greenhouse gas emissions. Much more importantly, students now benefit from receiving a quality education in a school that is small enough that they do not feel overwhelmed by its size.
If the ABC plan goes ahead, students will have to travel, on average, double the current distance to get to school every morning. Most will be driven. Gone will be the physically healthy and socially rewarding walk to school with other learners.
To make matters worse, the ABC majority is looking to not just close the schools, eliminating their operating costs, but then to sell this precious real estate – community land that has been paid for by taxpayers like you.
Even without closing schools, ABC Trustees may be tempted to carve off and sell parts of school properties to raise money – taking away local fields and playground spaces now used by students, local families, and communities.
Families with common sense do not balance their budgets by selling pieces of family furniture.
The draft Vancouver Plan forecasts that over the next 30 years the city will add about 260,000 additional residents. These expected residents will need not just housing, but also schools for their children. Where will these schools come from if current planning does not take future growth into account? Once schools are closed and the properties are sold, it will be impossible to get the land back.
The ABC trustees seem to believe that their role is not to act as advocates for students in education but rather to perform as accountants. To balance the School Board budget, they are choosing the option of making cuts rather than demanding adequate funding from the Province.
This problem is not new. The Vancouver School Board has experienced a number of budget deficits over the past decade but has drawn down its accumulated surplus to cover operations (ideally it should be used to cover capital costs) rather than going to the Province and demanding more money for an underfunded system.
These budget problems are not simply due to the way this district has handled its operating costs but seem to be province wide. The British Columbia School Trustees Association have stressed this point, noting that even the increased spending on capital costs and food programs outlined in the recent Provincial budget does little to meet the system’s pressing needs.
One Trustee is standing up — head and shoulders above the others — in opposition to the potential ABC cuts. COPE Trustee Suzie Mah has been working tirelessly with the community affected to develop a campaign that will bring the ABC majority to their senses and force them to ditch the cuts plan.
Trustee Mah and COPE have now launched a “No Cuts, No Closures” campaign to save Vancouver Schools. The campaign involves giving information directly to the parents of children whose schools will be affected, as well as going to farmers markets and community meetings to inform the public and garner support for the campaign.
Decisions to cut budgets and close schools will not only impact our children today but will also impact the quality of education for decades to come.
Take action now and join Trustee Suzie Mah to stop the ABC cuts and closure plan.
Daily atmospheric CO2 [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]
Latest daily total (Mar 10, 2023): 421.83ppm
One year ago (Mar 10, 2022): 418.94ppm
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