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MEDIA RELEASE
COMMUNITY MOBILIZES TO
SAVE QUEEN ELIZABETH ANNEX
WHICH SCHOOL WILL THE
VSB TARGET NEXT?
For Immediate Release - January 25, 2008
Vancouver - The Vancouver School Board seeks to
close Queen Elizabeth Annex (QEA), and sell the land on
which the school has stood for over 40 years. The proposed
sale will fund the conversion of the National Research Council
building into a UBC secondary school.
QEA is an outstanding dual-track (French immersion and
English) school that operates at capacity, and is wait listed
annually. QEA parents, and those who were counting on sending
their kids to QEA, have been given 19 days from the release
of the Educational Facilities Review (EFR) until the first
closure meeting.
The timetable set out by the VSB for this proposal is rushed,
and does not offer sufficient time to find alternative solutions.
What family can accept having only 19 days to prepare a
response to a more than 43-page document recommending closure
of their neighborhood school?
In addition to the unrealistic timetable, there are numerous
flaws in the EFR all pointing to the fact that the VSB has
not done its homework. A number of questions have been raised:
- Why is the entire burden of funding UBC neighborhood
schools falling on QEA?
- Why did the VSB wait until now to seek input from parents
throughout the district regarding this $25 million problem?
- Why are UBC and its developers not paying the capital
costs of schools for their developments?
- Why close schools when long-term enrolment for our district
is expected to dramatically increase after 2011 (see Fig.
6 in EFR)?
- Why is the Ministry of Education shirking its responsibility
to provide the capital to construct necessary new schools?
- What are the appropriate criteria for school closures?
We have received no coherent answers to these questions.
Today, January 25th, QEA parents are delivering a letter
(attached) to the Trustees of the VSB demanding that the
VSB postpone any decision on this matter for a minimum of
six months.
Which school will the VSB choose to close the next time
it needs quick cash?
For more information please contact:
Kerry Kilmartin, QEA Parent Communications Coordinator
604.822.8244 (daytime), 604.221.0488 (evening) or
kilmartin@ubcpress.ca
www.saveqea.org
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