Byng Arts Senior Courses Cut: Students Fight Back

Photo Credit: Serena Wang

Byng Arts, a mini school program based at Lord Byng Secondary School, has recently lost their senior English and Social Studies cohort courses due to program cuts. Byng students have been protesting the decision, resulting in the recovery of one course.

When students apply for the Byng Arts program, they choose a specialty to focus on throughout their high school career — options include Band, Choir, Drama, Media Arts, Strings, or Visual Arts. In the past, students were enrolled in Byng Arts English from grades 8 through 12, and Byng Arts Socials from grades 8 through 10.

The English and Socials courses are not necessarily advanced, but instead catered to the specific artistic talents of the students. Students have the opportunity to incorporate their artistic specialities into their coursework, such as composing a piece of music to represent a historical time period.

Students in the program stay with the same cohort of students throughout these classes. “I really joined the program so I can meet like-minded peers and individuals and study with the teachers who understand our artistic students,” Lincoln St. John, a grade 11 Byng Arts strings student, said.

Certain Byng Arts specialities, like Theatre and Strings, require students to take multiple off timetable courses. These rigorous course requirements take away many elective options, as students must fully commit to their respective arts specialities.

The Byng Arts course cuts were first announced to students during Lord Byng’s annual course planning assemblies on Feb. 7.

In the first assembly, which was for grade 11 students, it was promptly announced at the very end that there would be no Byng Arts courses for the following school year. When students requested an explanation, they were told that no further information could be provided.

“It was honestly insulting the way they handled it,” said Tara Pai, a grade 10 Byng Arts student. “It was really misinterpreted. We heard ‘no more Byng Arts’ and we assumed the whole program was canceled.”

A group of concerned students gathered in a teacher’s classroom to discuss the cancellations in hope of more clarity, and they were informed that Byng Arts Social Studies 10 and Byng Arts English 10-12 would be cancelled for the following school year. With no prior information shared, students were shocked with the decision.

 “There was really bad communication and also zero consultation in terms of, you know, ‘Does anybody agree with these decisions?’ They didn’t ask. For such a big change, they really should have at least asked,” said St. John. 

Parents, teachers, and students were not notified of the changes until the day of the assembly. Even the teachers who teach Byng Arts English and Byng Arts Socials were unaware of the decision. Prior to the announcement, the Byng Arts website was also not updated with the changes. 

Then, on Feb. 8, Mr. D. Wilmann, the principal of Lord Byng Secondary, sent out a message to parents informing them of the recent program cuts and the positive impacts they expect as a result.

Students accepted into the program for the 2024-2025 academic year were oblivious to the changes that would be implemented in their first year. 

St. John thought that this “screwed over all the applicants” because they were not informed about the course cuts before permanently accepting their spot at Byng Arts. 

Both St. John and Pai said that if there hadn’t been the option of senior Byng Arts English and Socials, they likely would have chosen a different program, due to the lack of enriched academic courses. They also found that the social environment created by the cohort classes was a significant factor when initially choosing Byng Arts.

Shortly after the assembly, a group of students came together to create an unofficial student union to combat the decision. The union was organized and led by five students, each a representative for their own grade. Composed of Tara Pai, Lincoln St. John, Lisa Fan, Gaon Yoon, and one other anonymous student, they acted as a voice for the general Byng Arts student body. 

“We had all of two hours after we found out about the cancellations to decide: are we going to let this slide or protest?” said Pai. “It was really just whoever was the loudest about this protest and whoever seemed to feel the strongest about it, whoever really wanted to do the most.” 

From February to April, the student union organized multiple forms of protests against the Byng Art’s senior cohort discontinuations.

 Soon after the announcement, the students created a change.org petition to protest the decision. The petition was sent around to other secondary schools in the area and quickly gathered attention. When the petition first hit 1,000 signatures, a group of around 20 Byng Arts students presented the petition and personalized letters from students to Mr.Wilmann. As of Apr. 27, the petition has gathered 1,784 signatures.

In late February, the student union reached out to the Byng Arts Administration via email to schedule an official meeting to discuss the course cuts. Mr. Wilmann, Ms. J. Sehmbi and Mr. J. Ritchie, the Lord Byng vice-principals, and Mr. J. Hartley-Folz, the Head of Byng Arts, were all present at this meeting.

“When we came in, it was really just five of us and we were there to have a peaceful discussion with admin,” said Pai. “The first thing they told us is that they wouldn’t be answering any questions. They’d just be hearing what we had to say. [...] They wouldn’t be clarifying anything. They wouldn’t even be giving any further detail.”

During the meeting, Mr. Wilmann said that there was a request from the Vancouver School Board (VSB) “to fix an issue that the school was facing where we didn’t have enough space for all the students in the catchment, allegedly,” said Pai. “The principal and vice-principals took it upon themselves to determine that the only way to do that was to remove the Byng Arts courses.”

The Byng Arts Administration also cited timetable issues as secondary reasoning for the Byng Arts cuts. “What they were kind of saying is that the Byng Arts courses were making it very difficult for them to timetable. However, they also have been doing all the same timetabling for the past many years, and it hasn’t really been that much of an issue,” said St. John.

“The changes were made because they will provide a broader range of educational opportunities throughout the school, enable more students who live in the catchment area to attend their local school and help create more connections across the entire Byng school community,” VSB Communications wrote in response to an interview request from The Nest. “These minor adjustments offer students in the arts program more choices and flexibility – especially considering electives.

In response to a request for comment, Mr. Wilmann sent The Nest a copy of the Feb. 8 message that was sent out to Byng Arts parents. “We believe these adjustments will enhance the overall experience, providing Byng students with more opportunities to select their courses,” the letter stated. 

Many Byng Arts parents shared concerns over the course cuts. On Feb. 26, members of the Byng Arts PAC subcommittee met in-person with Mr. Wilmann, Ms. Sehmbi, Mr. Ritchie, and Mr. Hartley-Folz to rally for the full reinstatement of all discontinued Byng Arts cohort courses.

The student union was present at this gathering and handed out flyers with information about the program cuts to concerned parents. “I spoke to the parents after and they were very dissatisfied with the lack of information provided,” said Pai.   

Then, on Feb. 28, the subcommittee members attended a Teams meeting with the same Byng Arts Administrators to go over a revised plan for the Byng Arts’ senior cohort courses. The students were able to recover Byng Arts English 10, but Byng Arts Social Studies 10 and Byng Arts English 11 and 12 remained discontinued.

According to St. John, “All the protesting, all of this fighting [...] all the unhappy students convinced [the Byng Arts Administration] that they should probably keep at least that.”

New Byng Arts cohort courses were also introduced; Byng Arts Career Life 10, Byng Arts Career Life Connections 11, Byng Arts Capstone 12. Concerns have been raised due to the fact that the mainstream versions of these Lord Byng Career Education courses function off-timetable and fully online. However, the Byng Arts Administration assured parents that there will be appropriate resources to successfully adapt these courses into Byng Arts cohorts. They have not yet provided any specific details as to how the courses will function.

Byng Arts Administration also implied that the Byng Arts Career Education classes would sometimes take place during FIT, as the Lord Byng FIT schedule is being reconstructed for the 2024-2025 school year, but no further details were provided.

“It’s basically just like a sorry excuse,” said Pai. “It’s online, and it's not even a course that I would want. [...] They haven’t even explained how we would do a Byng arts capstone. It doesn’t make any sense to me. There’s been very little information.”

While the course cuts made for next year are finalized, the student union plans to continue protesting with the hope of reinstating the courses for the 2025-2026 school year.