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      • Reference Guide: Introduction
      • Capacity Matters: Definitions
      • Capacity Matters: Impacts
      • Seismic Upgrading & School Closure
      • Declining Enrollment & Population Distribution
      • Why Close Schools
      • Alternatives to School Closure
      • Conclusion
      • 2016-17 Potential School Closures
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Conclusion

Conclusion

PAN is not suggesting that school facilities should never be adjusted to meet changing demographics. They should. However, underfunding, poor legislation, and austerity constraints around seismic upgrading have created a situation in Vancouver in which the school board is being forced to make poor, short-sighted decisions that will seriously compromise its ability to provide equitable access to quality public education for all children. Unreasonable demands by the provincial government are preventing the VSB from pursuing alternative ways of reducing surplus capacity that not only attend to the diverse educational needs of all learners, but preserve the progressive legacy of neighbourhood schooling for current and future generations.
 
The government has an opportunity through the seismic mitigation process to address surplus capacity in a way that provides safe, appropriately sized neighbourhood schools that will meet the needs of current and future Vancouver public school children. Instead, the provincial government is manufacturing a crisis of surplus space, using a harmful capacity target to reduce its obligation to seismically upgrade all schools, and deflecting attention away from the real crisis, which is the inadequate and unsustainable levels of funding allocated to school Districts under the current funding model. 

We call on the government once again to implement the recommendations of its own Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services: 
 
Recommendations
  1. Provide adequate capital funding to school Districts for facility improvements, seismic upgrades and additional schools in rapidly-growing communities. (2013: #25 and 2014: #23)
  2. Provide stable, sustainable and adequate funding to enable school Districts to fulfil their responsibility to continue to provide access to quality public education, with recognition of the increased costs that school Districts have incurred. (2014: #22)
  3. Review the Ministry of Education funding formula for programs and services, as well as administrative staff compensation levels to ensure adequate and competitive compensation.
< Cause of VSB's Budget Shortfall

 School Closure Main Page >

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PAN is the Parent Advocacy Network for Public Education. We are a grassroots collective of parents across Vancouver who share a commitment to public education.
​To contact a representative of PAN, email parentadvocacynetwork@gmail.com
Copyright © 2019
  • Home
  • News
  • About
    • Declaration
  • Resources
    • #BCEDINRED
    • #BuildSchoolsRight
    • Operation Funding
    • Capital Funding
    • School Closures >
      • Reference Guide: Introduction
      • Capacity Matters: Definitions
      • Capacity Matters: Impacts
      • Seismic Upgrading & School Closure
      • Declining Enrollment & Population Distribution
      • Why Close Schools
      • Alternatives to School Closure
      • Conclusion
      • 2016-17 Potential School Closures
  • Media & Documents