Key takeaways:
- School’s parent advisory committee pledges to counter shutdown.
- The Vancouver School Board is beginning, once again, the method of shutting Queen Elizabeth Annex.
Vancouver school could be shut again:
Once again, a small elementary school on Vancouver’s west side is driving toward shutdown.
On Monday evening, the Vancouver School Board voted seven to two to start the school shutdown procedure for Queen Elizabeth Annex.
It’s the fourth time since 2008 the little elementary school — with 71 students registered as of September 2021 — has met a permanent closure.
Board Chair Janet Fraser states things have been revised since the board previous considered the school’s future in 2019. Most significantly, she states, there is a long-term plan for seismic upgrades of school facilities and student enrolment.
“There is never a good time to have difficult discussions like this, and we recognize this is hard for families,” stated Fraser, who voted with the majority. Source – cbc.ca
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“The conversation will resume being thoughtful and considerate … this is the first step.” Source – cbc.ca
A team report suggests forcing the students at the annex to either L’École Jules Quesnel or Queen Elizabeth Elementary, both around one kilometre north.
The report makes a case that shutting the annex would evade deferred maintenance on the school, which is already seismically dangerous. It would also save funds by reducing services for students.
It also notes that the annex could be moved to the region’s French-language school board, the Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique, as a piece of continuing lawful problems. Annex Parent Advisory Council Chair Lily Cameron states Monday’s vote alerts another familiar, frustrating battle to hold the school open.
She has two kids at the school and doesn’t want to see them and their classmates moved to change schools, particularly with the pandemic having injected mess into much of their young lives already.
