Some Vancouver parents have been forced to travel outside their neighbourhood to find a school for their child
Credit to Author: Gordon McIntyre| Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2020 02:28:10 +0000
Jason Low looks out a window of his home at Henry Hudson elementary school, 15 metres away at Cypress and Cornwall in Kitsilano.
It’s where he went to school. It’s where his brother and sister went to school. It’s where their kids — his nieces and nephews and his son’s cousins — go to school.
But Low’s son won’t be joining them. Once 10 sibling spots were handed out, there were 30 spots for 88 families and Low’s four-year-old son is one of 58 on the outside looking in after this week’s entrance lottery.
“My parents have had a grocery store in the neighbourhood for 48 years, I grew up here, it’s frustrating,” Low said. “I’m looking right at the school right now, it’s mind-boggling.”
Low joins scores of other parents in Vancouver who found out this week there’s no room for their child in a dozen neighbourhood schools. Like the others, he’ll have to search for another public school, look at French immersion or consider a private school.
At least he has a vehicle to drive his son elsewhere. It’s an option not available to many who live in Olympic Village (10 years and counting, still no school) or downtown near the relatively new and already full Crosstown elementary school.
Like Low, Brent Toderian can look out his son’s bedroom window and see the school he and his wife had told their boy he’d be going to since it was built three years ago. They’re not sure now how to give him the disappointing news after he failed to earn a lottery spot.
Toderian, the chief planner with the city from 2006 to 2012 and formerly co-leader of Vancouver’s transportation plan, and his wife bought their downtown condo 10 years ago, choosing it so they could remain car-free.
Now advising cities around the world on planning, he said Vancouver has done a better job than any other city in North America when it comes to making its downtown livable, by far. It’s got all the amenities you could ask for — except for one.
“The disconnect is the school piece,” he said. “It’s not just bad planning, it’s bad reacting. Everything else downtown has been proactive.
“Instead of predict and provide, we should debate and decide how many kids do you want to come downtown?”
School boards in B.C. are asked to draw up five-year capital plans for new schools, seismic upgrades and expansions, prioritize their list, and then submit their request to the province. The Vancouver school board has listed an elementary school in Olympic Village as a high priority, along with a new school for Coal Harbour (estimated completion of construction there is 2023).
In a statement the Ministry of Education said it understands concerns and that capital requests are being reviewed.
“In just over two years, the ministry has provided nearly $290 million to the VSB for school capital projects, with seismic safety as our top priority, spending one in six of the ministry’s school capital dollars in Vancouver,” the statement read.
“A new school in Olympic Village has just, as of June 2019, become VSB’s top capital priority and all 60 school district recent capital asks are currently being reviewed.”
For now, a new, larger school is being built in the West End at the Lord Roberts Annex site, and the VSB has submitted expansion requests that include Cavell at 21st and Tupper, False Creek and Henry Hudson, among others.
In all, 12 of VSB’s 89 elementary schools are full.
“It’s important to note there is not an overall shortage in kindergarten spaces in Vancouver,” VSB spokeswoman Patricia MacNeil said. “We work hard to accommodate children in their catchment schools.
“The numbers fluctuate greatly at this time (of year) as many parents are currently choosing choice-program or cross-boundary options. All students registered will be offered placement at a Vancouver school.”
Which is of little solace to Jason Low, whose young son will be the first Low in two generations not to attend Henry Hudson as things now stand.
“We’ll see where they place us, and there are options,” Low said. “We’re just one family out of 58 who have to find somewhere else.
“But it’s about neighbourhood.”