Welcome to the fourth Weekly Issue Questionnaire in our series covering the 2026 Vancouver School Board Election.
Every week, we send questions focusing on key election issues to trustee candidates and publish their responses on our website.
Last week, we sent the following question to candidates:
If elected, how will you approach capacity issues at some VSB schools, and larger questions about the VSB’s real estate portfolio and its land-use policies?
Below, you’ll find candidates’ responses, which were edited only for grammar. In the interest of fairness, the order in which political parties are listed is randomized, and, within each political party, the order in which candidates are listed is also randomized.
As well, we asked candidates to limit their responses to 250 words. If their responses exceeded the word limit, in the interest of fairness, we’ve only published their first 250 words and inserted ellipses at the end of their response to denote this.
Please send any queries or concerns to ehnewspaper@gmail.com.
OneCity Vancouver
Steve Cardwell
Schools are the heart of the neighbourhood and soul of the community. Every neighbourhood deserves a strong public school with room for local children. As a former VSB superintendent, I would connect district-wide capacity planning with housing growth, enrolment projections, seismic renewal and future educational needs. I would work with the City and Province to secure new schools and additions, accelerate seismic upgrades, and align school planning with neighbourhood development.
We must also make thoughtful use of existing space. I would support reviewing where specialized and choice programs are located, alongside their scope and admission requirements, to improve equitable access and address uneven enrolment. These decisions must consider students’ learning, travel distances and continuity, with meaningful involvement from students, families and staff. Capacity planning must account for spaces needed for inclusion, libraries, arts, child care and student supports.
School lands should remain publicly owned for future generations, but their uses can evolve as communities change. Kingsgate and Britannia offer opportunities to combine new or renewed schools with affordable housing, childcare and community services. I support carefully structured leases and partnerships that protect public ownership, preserve future school capacity and deliver lasting educational and community benefits. Each proposal needs careful assessment and transparent consultation, including with Host Nations. We must consider current community needs and future students, rather than treating land primarily as a revenue source. Provincial funding remains essential for capital projects, so the VSB must have a strong voice in Victoria.
Christopher Lee
It has been so disappointing to see the uncertainty that families and the education community have with land use and capacity. We look at examples like cəw̓as Ch’elxwá7elch Skwuláw̓txw Seaside Elementary School (in Coal Harbour) where, even when the school opened this year, the school had to reject several families because it was at capacity. At the same time, neighbourhoods like Olympic Village wait decades for schools to be built and neighbourhoods like Collingwood have schools closed even in the midst of growing development. Fundamentally, this is due to a critical planning failure: the VSB is not planning for the future, but instead for now. My OneCity Colleagues and I will work with the City and Province to secure new schools and align school planning with neighbourhood development.
When it comes to school land, OneCity has a basic priority: public land should be for the public good. This School Board especially has opened the door to land leases for for-profit gain, instead of maintaining public land for good use. School land should not primarily be used for revenue generation, but instead spaces for the public benefit. This includes our Kingsgate Hub proposal, where we plan on transforming the space to provide a new school, child care, a community centre, and more on top of affordable housing.
Krista Sigurdson
Neighbourhood schools are a key priority for me. Families need to be able to access their local schools, preferably through transit, walking, or active transportation. Right now, we are moving away from this priority and towards a Vancouver where parents are driving across the city to get their kids to school, schools are being built such that they don't meet the growing needs of a neighbourhood and the School Board is leasing land without any control over how it will be used. Here are some things I would like to do:
Work with the City and Province to secure new schools and additions, accelerate seismic upgrades and align school board planning with neighbourhood development. Reviewing specialized and choice program locations to improve equitable access across the city and reduce travel times. Keep school lands public for future generations and explore opportunities on School Board land for (in addition to schools!): child care, affordable housing or other public uses.
TEAM for a Livable Vancouver
Kat Nystedt
School enrolments are determined by class size and demographics which change rapidly as the city grows and as new housing is built. The VSB has always had to play catch-up with school enrolment and immigration in and out of the district. The federal, provincial and civic governments seem not to consider schools in their policies. The Broadway Plan, for example, anticipates more than 50,000 new residents – and not one school.
Some elementary schools in the district are full and unable to take in more kindergarten or primary students. Kids end up on waiting lists, and parents have to drive their primary age children to a school with space, outside their catchment.
This imbalance is caused by the Province's rule of not building new schools until the overall district's enrolment is at 90%.
TEAM’s plan is to work with the Province to ensure there are convenient school options in every neighbourhood.
We should never sell valuable school property. Demographics could change requiring a school in the area where a new development is built. We need to keep schools where families live and where they will live.
The ongoing process of seismic upgrading of schools also requires the placement of students in a temporary location where there is more space. For this reason, no school properties should be sold in the short term.
COPE Vancouver
Suzie Mah
The VSB holds over $9 billion in land assets. Over the past 30 years, there have been constant threats of school closures and long term lease agreements proposed as a way to generate capital revenue for the school district. In my view, this is wrong on many levels.
1) Public land should be used for the public good. In the past four years, it was suggested that half of Bruce Elementary's field should be portioned off and offered for long-term lease development. This plan was halted due to public pressure from the community, which included pushback from both MLA Adrian Dix and MP Don Davies. Also, the southern portion of Fleming Elementary was leased for 99 years to a private developer. The Fleming land was leased for $8.5 million and the VSB will receive approximately $86,000 per year for each of the 99 years of the lease. The money cannot be used to hire teachers or staff to work with students. It must be used for capital expenditures: long-term physical assets, facility upgrades, seismic retrofits, equipment, or technology. $86,000 doesn't buy much.
2) It is disruptive to families. Continued suggestions to close schools and lease school lands cause major stress for families, creating great worry that once their child is in a school, they may have to move if that school is on the chopping block.
3) We have moved far from the concept of "neighborhood schools". Children should be able to attend the school closest to [...]
Derrick O’Keefe
School trustees don’t just decide on school district budgets and policies.
School trustees make decisions about the VSB’s nearly $10 billion-dollar real estate portfolio with over 200 properties including things like empty adjacent lots, parking lots, works yards, and community centres like in the West End.
That's a lot of land. And that's a lot of responsibility.
ABC has made some bad decisions with our public land, including giving away two school basketball courts at Fleming Elementary to a for-profit developer. COPE will put a stop to all giveaways of public lands to for-profit interests.
I think we need a long-range approach to facilities planning and land management in the School District. We should avoid closing schools and disposing of public land, even if there are short-term reductions in enrolment.
The City's new Official Development Plan calls for densification across the whole city, and we need to maintain all our public lands to be able to meet the needs of public education well into the future.
Melanie Cheng
As a parent of three, former DPAC Chair, and award-winning education advocate, I have opposed school closures, subdivisions, and land dispositions that compromise growing communities for over a decade.
In 2016, I helped lead the campaign opposing the closure of 12 Vancouver schools. More recently, I fought the subdivision of Graham Bruce Elementary's field, opposed the 99-year lease of Fleming Elementary's basketball courts before the VSB and City Council, and led the campaign to save Carleton Elementary from closure.
My 20 years as a paralegal working on trustee cases have given me extensive experience with fiduciary responsibilities. My work as a paralegal has deepened my understanding of the School Act, relevant case law, UNDRIP, and section 23 of the Canadian Charter protecting minority-language education rights.
Provincial legislation mandating increased housing density near transit hubs makes long-term facilities planning urgent. Vancouver continues to grow without a transparent district-wide plan addressing future school capacity.
If elected, I will advocate for a public facilities plan incorporating housing growth, enrolment, seismic safety, childcare, Indigenous rights, minority-language education, and transportation safety. I will prioritize school expansions, new schools, and protecting existing capacity in growing neighbourhoods, working with governments, Indigenous rights holders, education partners, and school communities.
COPE opposes short-sighted closures, subdivisions, and long-term leases that compromise future capacity. As a COPE trustee, I will work to protect public school land for future generations and ensure facilities decisions are grounded in law, evidence, equity, and meaningful public engagement.
ABC Vancouver
Preeti Faridkot
I think we need to look at capacity issues school by school and neighbourhood by neighbourhood. A district-wide number doesn’t tell the full story. Some schools have space, while others are dealing with growing enrolment and students who are struggling to get the courses and programs they need. We have seen this issue frequently in our downtown area.
I would want the VSB to use current enrolment, future growth, housing development and community needs to make these decisions. We should be planning ahead, not waiting until a school is already overcrowded. We have a new school coming to Olympic Village, and we recently opened Seaside Elementary School to handle enrollment issues.
When it comes to the VSB’s real estate portfolio, I believe school land is a long-term public asset. Before we consider changing the use of a school site, we need to look carefully at future population growth, school capacity, building condition, seismic needs, childcare, accessibility and what that neighbourhood may need 10 or 20 years from now.
We also need much stronger coordination with the City of Vancouver when new housing and neighbourhoods are being planned. If we are approving thousands of new homes, schools and other community infrastructure need to be part of that conversation from the beginning.
My approach would be to protect school land, plan for growth, make the best use of the space we already have, and make decisions transparently with parents, students and school communities at the table. We cannot afford to make short-term [...]
Green Party of Vancouver
Julie Strilesky
Every neighbourhood should have a school where students have the space and support they need to learn. That means looking beyond today’s enrollment numbers and planning for how our communities will grow.
Eric Hamber Secondary is a good example of what happens when capacity isn’t adequately planned. The new school opened in 2024 but reached its student capacity the following year. Reports of limited cafeteria seating, locker shortages and teachers sharing classrooms raise real concerns about the daily experience of students and staff.
If elected, I would push for practical, transparent solutions to these immediate problems while ensuring the VSB takes a longer-term approach to enrollment, staffing and facilities planning. That starts with listening to students, teachers and school administrators, understanding what they need, and making sure those needs inform budget decisions.
I would also prioritize capacity challenges at King George Secondary and Carr Elementary, and advocate for stronger coordination between the VSB, the City and the Province so that school infrastructure keeps pace with housing, city infrastructure and population growth.
We need to take a very considered approach to the VSB’s land and buildings. School properties are public assets, and decisions about their future should consider not only current enrollment but also future educational needs and the role schools play in their communities. Any proposals involving land and buildings must be supported by evidence and in-depth public consultation. Given the major funding gap for seismic and sustainability upgrades to protect safety and health, nevermind all the other challenges, we [...]
Alisha Masongsong
Every student deserves a safe, welcoming, well-resourced neighbourhood school with enough space to learn and thrive.
Eric Hamber's experience demonstrates why better planning is essential. Despite opening a new building in 2024, the school reached its 1,700-student capacity the following year. Students have reported crowded stairwells, insufficient cafeteria seating and locker challenges, while teachers have had to share classrooms.
As a Vancouver Green School Board candidate, I will advocate for practical, immediate solutions alongside long-term planning.
Our platform commits to improving enrollment forecasting, strengthening multi-year staffing and facilities planning, and prioritizing student and teacher needs in budget decisions. At Hamber, this means working directly with students, teachers and administrators to address overcrowded common areas, classroom pressures and adequate access to learning spaces.
We also specifically prioritize capacity challenges at King George Secondary and Carr Elementary, while advocating for provincial capital funding and better coordination with the City to ensure housing growth is matched by school infrastructure.
Importantly, public school lands must remain public assets, protected for future educational and community needs. Decisions about school properties, redevelopment or closures must be transparent, evidence-based and shaped by meaningful community consultation.
Through my background in community planning, I understand the importance of planning for growth while protecting the spaces communities depend on.
My commitment is to listen to students, plan proactively, and ensure our public schools have the space and resources they need, now and for future generations.
Vote Vancouver
Tasha Doucas, Amarys Joseph, and Mandy Potter
If elected we would review the capacity needs of all schools and then determine if there are any schools in nearby areas that could handle some of the extra students. This would ensure students receive equal support across the VSB. We will plan where to build new schools and determine if new, larger buildings could be established while upgrading existing schools for seismic resistance. We will make better use of underutilized school spaces, plan ahead for population growth, and work with the Province to secure the funding needed to support the VSB and its students. Our policy is not to sell off any Vancouver School Board-owned land. We will work with the City Council to determine spaces for additional childcare facilities to support VSB capacity and assess if any VSB-owned land could accommodate larger schools to meet the needs of a growing community and deal with overcapacity of any nearby schools.
No Response
The questionnaire was emailed to the following candidates and/or the contact email listed on their party’s website, but they did not respond by the deadline:
Darren Boidman (Vancouver Liberals)
Sherry Breshears (OneCity Vancouver)
Rory Brown (OneCity Vancouver)
Joshua Cameron (Vancouver Liberals)
Alfred Chien (ABC Vancouver)
Ishi Dinim (Vancouver Liberals)
Gwen Giesbrecht (COPE Vancouver)
Maria Kritikos (ABC Vancouver)
Matt Kroeker (ABC Vancouver)
Christopher Lee (OneCity Vancouver)
Noosha Mehdian (Vancouver Liberals)
Rob Nijjar (ABC Vancouver)
Isabel Ochoa (Vancouver Liberals)
Shirley Sio (ABC Vancouver)
Lina Vargas (ABC Vancouver)
Bright Future Vancouver was given the opportunity to respond to the questionnaire under their party name, since they haven’t announced the names of any school board candidates, and they also did not respond by the deadline.