Classroom Chaos: New School Building Plan Draws Criticism From Teachers

Photo Credit: KMBR Architects & Planners/Bird Construction/Vancouver School Board

Hamber’s move to the new school building in September has sparked considerable discussion among teachers, especially regarding the way that generalist subject departments, the departments that do not require special classrooms, are to be distributed across the building.

The Nest reached out to nine teachers for their thoughts on the matter, four of which agreed to be interviewed under the condition of anonymity.

The administrative team met weekly with the generalist subject department heads over a period of six weeks to discuss the distribution of classrooms within their departments. Three departments indicated that they preferred their classrooms to be near each other, while two did not.

In internal department discussions, many teachers were adamant about retaining their departmental cohesion. “With the exception of one or two people… [most people in my department] wanted to be together,” one department head said.

Staff members were disappointed, however, when the administrative team announced a plan to spread out general classrooms across two floors without allocating department sections. 

A large number of teachers expressed dissatisfaction, according to the department head, when they realized that there was no inquiry directly asking teachers if they would prefer to be grouped by department.

“Ms. M. Jensen (Administration) put a survey out for every teacher teaching a general subject [for] more than four blocks to find out which floor [they] would like to be on, which direction [they] want to be facing, and anything else [they] wanted to tell her around where [they] wanted to be,” the department head said. “She never asked if they wanted to be in department groupings or in some other different grouping.” 

They added that as part of the school’s reconciliation efforts, the department heads discussed the distribution of classrooms with a VSB Indigenous Consultant to find out if any local Indigenous principles indicate whether to group classrooms by department; the consultant confirmed that there is no preference according to the local Indigenous ways, provided that the community is happy with the decision.

What frustrated this department head most is that the decision felt pointless. “There are no pedagogical reasons [...] for splitting departments up,” they said.

Ms. Jensen did not respond in time to The Nest’s request for comment.

Another Hamber teacher believes the new layout will cause significant inconvenience for students and staff. Given that some general subject departments’ classrooms are scattered around the current building, they had hoped that this would be fixed in the new school.

“I think breaking up the departments like this does add a lot of confusion because everyone will be new to the school anyway and no one will know where any of the teachers are, making it harder for both staff and students to find them,” they said. "We will not be able to point students in the general direction of the department the teacher is in.”

If departments are located in the same vicinity, however, students would likely be aware of the department's location, which would facilitate finding their classes. It would additionally allow for more opportunities for teachers to collaborate and mentor each other.

The teacher shared a similar sentiment to the department head, saying that they are “not sure of the reasons why departments are split up.” This is due to the communication not being clear as it conflicts with other information that was presented by both staff and admin.

In contrast with the other two teachers, one anonymous teacher believes that dispersing departments in accordance with the new plan is a good idea. They think this configuration could be especially beneficial for ELL students, who do not usually enroll in regular social studies or English classes. If ELL classrooms had their own department, these students would be isolated in one section, rather than walking through the same hallways as the rest of the school and integrating more with the community.