Parents and teachers watched in frustration last night as Vancouver School Board (VSB) superintendent Steve Cardwell revealed a list of three elementary schools and two annexes that could shut down on June 30, 2011, in the interest of saving money.
Nobody at the meeting seemed happy.
“It’s not a done deal,” said Alan Wong, VSB trustee and chair of the meeting. The public can still influence the final decision, he said.
The VSB will be holding public information and feedback meetings for each school between now and the beginning of December, when the final decision will be announced.
Cheryl Wenezenki-Yolland, B.C.’s comptroller general, first suggested the cuts in a report to the Minister of Education in June. The money currently spent on an estimated 8,442 empty seats can be better spent somewhere else, she said in the report.
“I call these Minister MacDiarmid’s closures, because they’re a direct result of underfunding,” VSB trustee Mike Lombardi said during the meeting.
Find meeting dates and details at www.vsb. bc.ca/school-closures. You can email the VSB at schoolclosure@vsb.bc.ca.
