BREAKING: VSB Trustees Vote to Close Queen Elizabeth Annex
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The Queen Elizabeth Annex will be closed effective June 30, 2023 | Photo by Spencer Izen
UPDATE: New details regarding board meeting added [10:30 PM, June 5]
The Vancouver School Board (‘VSB’) voted 6-3 on Tuesday night to close Queen Elizabeth Annex, a K-3 Early French Immersion school on Vancouver’s West Side.
Trustees Janet Fraser (Green), Estrellita Gonzalez (Green), Lois Chan-Pedley (Green), Carmen Cho (Independent), Fraser Ballantyne (Independent), and Allan Wong (Vision Vancouver) voted in favour of the closure. Trustees Jennifer Reddy (OneCity), Barb Parrott (COPE), and Oliver Hanson (Independent) voted against it.
Fraser, Chan-Pedley, Wong, and Reddy are all seeking reelection this fall.
Queen Elizabeth Annex currently offers French immersion and has 71 students in the current school year.
This was the fourth time that the VSB has tried to close the school since 2008. The last time the board contemplated the closure, VSB Chair Janet Fraser stated that the issue would not be brought up again.
This vote capped off months of highly contentious debate surrounding the closure and the consultation that many critics believe was flawed. The closure decision comes one day after a Griffins’ Nest investigation shed light on widely-discredited public engagements, faulty closure rationale, and the government’s quiet amendments to the School Act giving the Province new statutory power to force school boards to transfer land assets to the BC-wide francophone school board, the Conseil scolaire francophone (“CSF”).
The QEA Parent Advisory Committee has filed a complaint against the Vancouver School Board with the BC Ombudsperson, alleging the District violated its school closure policy with respect to the consultations. The Board said in a June 2 meeting it believes the VSB has met the criteria outlined in its policies.
The CSF has had an interest in the QEA site for some time, and the Ministry of Education has previously pressured the VSB to close the school in exchange for funding for the long-needed Olympic Village elementary school. In 2019, then Minister of Education Rob Fleming, through a statement read by Board Chair Janet Fraser, shared the offer at a public board meeting. That time around, the Board rejected the offer and decided to not even proceed to public consultation regarding the closure of QEA.
In 2020, the BC NDP promised to fund Olympic Village, but never fulfilled that pledge which likely contributed to them flipping the riding. The VSB and City of Vancouver secured a site in early 2021, but the province never funded the project. With enrolment around the area only getting more pressured, VSB staff brought forward a proposal to close the school this January. One of the factors discussed was long-term lease revenue being used to fund other capital projects that hadn’t been supported by the Ministry.
Parents, including the Vancouver District Parents Advisory Council (“DPAC”) Vice-Chair Vik Khanna, have alleged that the closure of QEA is a quid-pro-quo and the VSB should stand up to the province to uphold its promise.
Additionally, many took issue with District’s approach to long-term planning, chiefly that its guiding document, called the Long-Term Facilities Plan (“LRFP”), only extends until 2029 and does not qualify for any of the regional development plans. In catchments where significant development in the number of thousands of people with substantial portions dedicated to affordable, family-friendly housing, the LRFP and its appendices charts predict a decline in enrolment.
The VSB has maintained that its LRFP predictions are sound and that the District is well-suited to adapt and provide facilities to future Vancouver students.
As development plans in the West Side purport to bring in more than 60,000 people, parents, including those from schools across Vancouver, argued that QEA was necessary to support future enrolment. The VSB has yet to thoroughly explain their statements as to why QEA isn’t needed while all schools surrounding it are being expected to absorb future students. What makes QEA special, beyond external pressure, was never articulated.
The June 6 meeting’s only item on the agenda was a motion on whether to proceed with the closure. All nine trustees spoke to the motion, sharing their rationale and thinking heading into the final vote.
First was Trustee Wong, the mover of the motion.
Wong prefaced his rationale by saying no trustee ever wants to be in the position of having to close a school and said his decision was one that came down to the “11th hour.” Bringing up tte Province’s amendment to the School Act, Wong voted in favour of closing the school.
Next was Trustee Chan-Pedly, also in favour of the closure, who said she was “not happy to be forced to do this,” but “advocating to the province [regarding Olympic Village] has only gotten us so far.” Seeing QEA as a necessary trade-off to obtain funding for Olympic Village, Chan-Pedly expressed that the Province had fallen back on its word and acknowledged the political pressure.
Trustee Gonzalez began her statement by addressing that she was against QEA’s closure when it came up in 2019. However, she said, several things have changed, including the absence of Ministry approvals for capital projects for the last three years. Gonzalez also brought up the need for School Site Acquisition Charges (“SSACs”) in Vancouver, which was first reported in The Nest’s investigation yesterday as a possible method of revenue generation for the District pending amendments to the Vancouver Charter. Unlike all other BC municipalities, Vancouver is governed by a separate statute, as opposed to the Local Government Act, which authorities cities like Burnaby, Coquitlam, and Richmond to all levy and collect SSACs on behalf of a school district.
Trustee Parrott was the first to say she was against the closure. Parrott, who had been against the closure in 2019, said not much had changed for her. Parrot expressed concern that by bowing to the Province, the VSB was diminishing the “power imbalance” it already experiences in capital planning and funding.
“I want you to build that school that you promised,” Parrott pleaded, addressing the NDP government, referring to Olympic Village.
Trustee Ballantyne said he echoes the statements of Gonzalez and Wong and thanked everyone involved in the consultations.
Trustee Reddy described the consultation process as “fraught” and advised her fellow school board members they were relying on data that “inaccurately represents what we’re looking at.” Both of those arguments were raised by parents and members of the public for weeks leading up to the decision.
Reddy also stated that the District’s engagement with First Nations was inadequate in light of their adoption of the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. She voted against the closure.
In an emotional statement, Trustee Hanson shared his experience with school closures. “I remembered in 2016 [when] Sir Richard McBride Annex was slated for closure. I received this news… six weeks before I was to enroll my son in kindergarten. I remember that sinking feeling after receiving the news.”
“The shock. The disbelief, the anxiety, the fear. I was a first-time parent and I felt helpless.”
When trustees voted to suspend school closures indefinitely later that year, he felt an “unbelievable relief.”
He urged the board to not make a decision similar to McBride’s closure.
Acknowledging he isn’t seeking reelection, he shared that he felt free of the political trappings of his office, free of leanings of a political party, and free to make decisions in the best interest of students.
“Closing Queen Elizabeth Annex is the wrong decision,” he stated.
Trustee Cho closed by saying the Board needs to consider the responsible and equitable allocation of resources and voted for the closure.
Reaction on social media regarding the closure has been swift, and overwhelmingly negative.
As Vancouver municipal election approaches, the vote on the closure of QEA is looking to be a major factor in voters’ minds ahead of the polls.
The school will close for good on June 30, 2023.