Governments Support Safe Neighbourhood Schools

While we have not been feeling the love from the provincial government — the Minister of Education continues to refuse to meet with us — this week we have felt the love from other levels of government.

On Monday, September 19, 2016, MP Don Davies (Vancouver-Kingsway), called on the Prime Minister to make federal funds available to seismically upgrade BC schools. 

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On Tuesday, September 20, 2016 City of Vancouver Councillor Andrea Reimer brought the motion "Standing Up for Vancouver's Neighbourhood Schools" to City Council. The motion requires a letter be written to the Ministry of Education requesting that the Provincial capacity-utilization requirements be amended to:

• allow for a lower capacity requirement where mitigating factors exist, such as significant enrolment fluctuation;
• decouple the requirement for school boards to close schools in order to get funding for life-saving seismic upgrades;
• support right-sizing of neighbourhood schools where there is a clear, consistent trend of lower enrolment; and
• change the formula for calculating capacity to reflect that place-based learning is critical for the success of inner city and Aboriginal learners.

It passed unanimously.