Background Info

The Vancouver School Board is rushing to sell QEA and its public lands to pay for a UBC High School. UBC promised to build a school for the UBC community (South Campus Community Plan, January 2005). Now UBC is breaking their promise and the VSB is doing nothing …WHY? QEA is an outstanding K-3 school opposite Chaldecott Park that has served our community for over forty years. Every year there are long waitlists to get into the exceptional French Immersion program at this dual track school The VSB has not done its homework ' its analysis is incomplete and misleading. Our community cannot afford to lose this school.

UBC offered to build a school for the UBC community (South Campus Community Plan, January 2005) and lease the school to the VSB to operate. Why hasn't the VSB taken them up on this financing offer?

• QEA is an outstanding K-3 school opposite Chaldecott Park that has served our community well for over forty years.
• Every year there are long waitlists to get into the exceptional French Immersion program at this dual track school. QEA feeds into Kitsilano High School French program, which annually contends for producing the highest test scores of any secondary school in the province.
• The closure of such a thriving school is a drastic step for any school board to take without the highest standards of due process and fair public consultation.
• The analysis in the EFR Proposal has missed critical aspects of policy evaluation.
• The VSB is proposing to sell an important public asset that can never be replaced - even when long-term enrolment for our district increases (even noted within Figure 6 of the EFR document).
• There could be a negative impact on the environment - as more parents will be forced to drive their children to school.

Here Are the Issues:

1.  Why are UBC and its developers not paying the capital costs of schools for their developments? It was foreseeable that UBC's massive developments would create a shortage of places in UHill catchment schools.

2.  Why is the entire burden of funding UBC neighbourhood schools falling on QEA? Dunbar, Point Grey and UBC share neither a community plan, nor the same municipal government. Our communities did not have any control over UBC's decision to greatly increase density.

• What criteria have been used in the creation of the study areas e.g.. UBC ' Dunbar St.?

3.  Why did VSB not recognize this foreseeable problem and demand full funding for the capital costs of new schools from UBC Properties Trust?

4.  Why did VSB wait until now to seek input from parents throughout the district regarding this $25 million problem?

• Parents should have been warned earlier that the UBC problem would be passed on to other district schools instead of addressed within the Provincial Ministry of Education.

5.  Long-term enrolment for our district is expected to dramatically increase after 2011 (see figure 6 of the EFR report).

• It seems short-sighted to close and sell any public schools/lands as they may soon be needed again and comparable sites in our neighborhoods and communities will be almost impossible to obtain.

6.  What are the appropriate criteria for school closings? QEA is an outstanding school with active parent participation, a strong sense of community, and with a waiting list.

• Is it now a VSB policy objective to eliminate annexes throughout the district regardless of performance or enrollment? If so, this deserves broader discussion throughout the district.

7.  Have all other options for financing the new UHill secondary school been thoroughly explored?

• Would more money be available from the Province, UBC, UBC developers, anywhere else?

8.  The timetable for this proposal is rushed and gives insufficient time to find alternative solutions.

• VSB has been aware internally for some time that this closure was on the table, but chose to use only a small window to consult parents and involve the larger community in a discussion of options.
• The process used at QEA will be carried out throughout the district, and will serve as the first test case for EFR's of other neighborhoods. We need to stand up for the principles of a broad-based, equitable, and consultative process.

9.  Why close QEA just prior to the seismic upgrades of Queen Elizabeth Main and Jules Quesnel?

• This implies that over the next several years two of the three neighbourhood elementary schools will be shut down, and difficulties are sure to arise because of this.
• QEA could be an extremely useful space throughout the period of the seismic upgrades ' many young children are being asked to move schools FOUR TIMES throughout their early primary years under the current proposal, with considerable commutes and additional traffic out to UBC.