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Detailed Letter and Submission
- Jan 18, 2008
Subject: Proposed closure and sale
of Queen Elizabeth Annex
To: allen.blakey@vsb.bc.ca, ken.denike@vsb.bc.ca, carol.gibson@vsb.bc.ca,
eleanor.gregory@vsb.bc.ca, sharon.gregson@vsb.bc.ca,
clarence.hansen@vsb.bc.ca, don.lee@vsb.bc.ca, allan.wong@vsb.bc.ca,
shirley.wong@vsb.bc.ca, minister.educ@gov.bc.ca, dm.education@gov.bc.ca,
colin.hansen.mla@leg.bc.ca, stephen.owen@ubc.ca, bog@unixg.ubc.ca
Dear Vancouver School Board Trustees, my MLA, The Minister
of Education, The Deputy Minister of Education, UBC President,
and UBC VP External Affairs, UBC Board of Govenors
I am writing as a Dunbar resident, a parent ..... ETC
Upon learning about the Vancouver School Board's proposed
closure of Queen Elizabeth Annex in order to finance UBC's
NRC upgrade to address the school over-crowding problem
that has been created with the extensive land development,
I was nothing less than stunned and horrified. The lack
of concern for the welfare of our children, as the proposal
suggested moving around our kids like objects on a chess
board for the purposes of financial advantage, is beyond
any human comprehension. What dollar amount can be placed
on a child's emotional health and welfare? Whose children
are we willing to sacrifice for the service of UBC's fincancial
interests? What would be the impact on already vulnerable
children and how many children who would otherwise do well
academically and emotionally develop unnecessary problems?
After already attending and speaking of some of my concerns
at two of the meetings so far and intend to attend the last
two this week, I was not only appalled by the lack of warmth
expressed and communicated by the representatives on the
panel, but also by their omission of information and alternative
ideas presented by community members at previous meetings
during the consultation sessions. The assertion that this
is truly a "public consultation" seems a misrepresentation
of the truth. The sessions appear to be nothing more than
"information sessions", letting the public know
what has been decided by the Board (to close and sell the
Queen Elizabeth Annex to fund UBC educational facility needs)
and an invitation for the public to suggest ideas for how
to deal with the fall-out of this decision.
I have prepared a draft addressing some concerns about the
process that has been initiated that I plan to share at
Monday's consultation session. Following the draft, I have
also included my list of questions that I asked at the meeting
at Jules Quesnel.
The attachments to this email and the web resources listed
below the questions were all documents that I submitted
to the Board at the time that I asked the questions.
I am aware that this is a lot of reading and want to express
my most sincere appreciation for your time and careful consideration
of this extremely important matter.
Thank you again for your time and efforts.
Sincerely,
(concerned parent)
Draft of submission for Public
Consultation Meeting this week:
Reflections about the Educational Facilities Review Process
As a psychologist, I am in the business of helping people
solve problems. What I have come to discover is that in
most cases, what is perceived to be “the problem”
is actually only a symptom of other problems, typically
confounded by perceptual and cognitive distortions and blind
spots. Wading through and deconstructing these is a difficult
task in and of itself, but is made even more challenging
in cases where a positioned stance is made which leaves
little if any room to explore alternative ways to look at
a situation, and hence, alternative solutions that may be
superior. When this happens, we often get ourselves into
a real pickle-----now we have layered yet another problem
upon the already pre-existing problem/s.
Unfortunately, this is the situation we are now finding
ourselves. Indeed, in the Vancouver School District there
are true problems that need to be addressed:
- Financial strains due to insufficient provincial funding
- The need for seismic upgrading
- Changing city-wide demographics and population density
patterns which impact enrollment trends and school capacity
- The need for more availability in French Immersion programs
in this geographic area
- Shortage of competent French teachers and the national
objective to double the number of Canadian high school
graduates with linguistic duality by 2013.
- Over-enrollment at UBC schools
Clearly, each of these issues need to be addressed and
have the potential of impacting each other. The VSB’s
decision that these issues need to be addressed and involve
the public in this process is wonderful. The problem that
emerged, however, is three-fold:
1) public consultation was initiated too far into the
process, well after the VSB not only took a positioned
stance about the source and solution to the problems. Instead
of consulting the public at the point of brainstorming about
the nature of the problems, opening the discussion about
perceptions of the problems, possible oversights, interaction
effects, and possibilities about alternative solutions,
the VSB came to the public with ONE solution that they had
decided was best (closure and sale of QEA) and then requested
the community to share their thoughts about possible alternatives
and recommendations for coping with this singular plan of
action---a plan of that clearly would not be in the best
interest of the children----the detrimental short- and long-term
impacts unthinkable.
2) confounding variables associated with the interaction
effects of the issues and their impacts were not properly
studied or analyzed
3) there was a significant perceptual blind spot regarding
UBC’s role in causing their current enrollment crisis
and resultant domino-effect that has only recently been
illuminated that the VSB reportedly was unaware of.
What has become clear regarding this is that by UBC’s
lack of responsibility in following through with their legal
commitment to provide adequate educational facilities for
the population growth which they chose to create through
land development, they single-handedly not only created
their local over-enrollment dilemma, but also complicated
the other problems currently under discussion. If UBC had
carried through with their commitments around educational
facilities,
a. perceived financial strains for the VSB would be relieved
b. logistics around seismic upgrading would be mitigated,
c. children in the UBC community would be able to attend
school in their local community, hence shifting enrollment
patterns and demands in other areas of the city, and increase
more space in the educational facilities to expand the French
Immersion programs already in place, as well as create space
for new ones.
d. Retention of qualified and experienced French teachers
in the area would be improved by giving them a greater sense
of stability and appreciation for the program development
that they have worked so hard to create and maintain.
In summary, the members of the VSB----as human beings like
the rest of us, are not immune to perceptual and cognitive
errors, and subsequently poor decisions, especially in situations
which are stressful. My appeal to you as the School Board
and the Board of Trustees is to have the openness, courage,
and humility to acknowledge that this process is inherently
flawed and needs to be revisited, taking into account the
new information that has emerged through these public consultations
and also take steps to invite the public to support you
through all stages of problem exploration and resolution
regarding the issues that face us.
I’ve heard it said that when only one solution seems
viable for a given problem, this reflects a crisis in creativity.
Let us join together as a community of artists to co-create
a vision of new possibilities for our beloved children and
for those in generations to come.
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Questions Prepared for January 18, 2008 Public Consultation
Meeting (only questions 1, 2 & 3 were asked):
on Page 23 of the colourful publication, it outlines enrollment
statistics. At the Annex in 2003 there was a jump in enrollment
rates from 128-169, increased to 179, then began to drop
after the VSB discontinued the second K-FI class.
at what point did the Annex begin to have two K-FI classes?
And, given:
i. the continuance of demand for local FI far exceeding
the available classes,
ii. VSB’s reported commitment to expand FI (Dec 20,
2004 document also stated, “The board will look at
ways to ensure no student is denied access to French Immersion
Programs.”)
iii. Federal Plan 2013 under the “Official Languages
Act”---In April, 2003, the Federal Government set the
goal of doubling by the year 2013 the proportion of secondary
school graduates with a functional proficiency in their
second official language, providing extensive funding to
support this effort through second language education
iv. Feb 20, 2007 VSB (Long-term Plan for French Language
Learning, Final Report) following research recommended that
in areas of high demand for FI (SW Vancouver specifically
identified), options to expand FI needed to be explored
---- not just for the long run, but also via creative short-term
solutions in areas of high demand
---and the process mechanisms outlining how to do this were
also clearly delineated----that after extensive open community
consultation with parents, and if potential disruption to
any students (e.g. via conversion from dual-track to single
track programs), proceed only following extensive consultation
with parents and ensuring any significant conversions be
“managed carefully over several years” (p. 8)
How was it decided to remove one of the FI K classes?
2. It seems that the VSB is wanting larger, and hence, purportedly
more fiscally efficient schools. Is this a fair assessment?
How aware is the Board of the research about the effects
of larger versus smaller schools on factors such as kid’s
- Mental health,
- Academic performance
- Sense of belonging
- Social rejection
- School problems
- Interpersonal violence
- Test scores
- The effects on and the increasing incidence of academically
marginalized students
****Since school size effect have been known about for decades
(e.g. Garbarino, 1980)
4. What considerations have been made to retain the current
amazing QEA teachers, especially in the face of the severe
shortage of qualified French Teachers---a serious well-documented
problem also addressed in the VSB Long-term Plan?
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1. "VSB Board Highlights: From the board meeting of
the Vancouver School Board", Monday, December 20, 2004:
--- "French Immersion registration improved":
www.vsb.bc.ca/NR/rdonlyres/D773680F-B889-4D19-819F-BB1B4BE55A9D/0/BoardHighlightsdec20.pdf
(brief article ending with the quote, "The board will
look at ways to ensure no student is denied access to French
Immersion programs."
2. Implementation recommendations for Plan 2013 (April 30,
2004) -(Department of Canadian Heritage)
http://www.patrimoinecanadien.gc.ca/progs/lo-ol/pubs/plan-2013/index_e.cfm
3. Action Plan for Official Languages (Treasury Board of
Canada Secretariat--abstract):
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/rma/eppi-ibdrp/hrdb-rhbd/apol-palo/description_e.asp
4. French-Immersion Education in Canada May 17, 2007
http://www.ccl-cca.ca/CCL/Reports/LessonsInLearning/LinL20070517_French_Immersion_programs.htm
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