No school closures in Vancouver for now, says B.C. education minister

Parents and students in Vancouver worried that schools will be closed after the mass firing of the school board yesterday need not fear — for now, said B.C. Education Minister Mike Bernier Tuesday.

"There is no school closure process taking place right now in Vancouver for schools with students in them."

Vancouver, a district with declining enrolment, had been considering the potential closure of 11 schools — many of them on the city's East Side — but the now-fired board stopped that process earlier this month.

Its dismissal has raised the question of what happens now to school closures in the city and whether the government-appointed trustee would be tasked with shutting doors.

Before the minister's comments today, parents from several affected schools, along with B.C. NDP MLAs Adrian Dix, Shane Simpson and Melanie Mark, delivered petitions with 18,324 signatures asking to keep their schools open.

"We worked hard all summer ... to get to this point where the trustees were listening to us and our schools were stable," said Melanie Chang, a parent at Graham Bruce Elementary, which was on the list for potential closures.

"We're outraged that our school is now again at risk potentially of being closed."

'Great victory'

The minister specifically noted that Gladstone Secondary, the only high school left on the VSB's possible closure list, is not currently being considered for closure.

"Gladstone is no longer on any closure list," said Bernier.

Vancouver-Kingsway MLA Adrian Dix, who led the protest this morning, called the minister's comments a clear sign that East Vancouver parents were heard.

"This is a great victory for parents and for students, especially  Gladstone students who have worked their heart out on this issue," said Dix.

"Obviously we were worried, since the provincial government was the cause of the school closure process, that it might be back on."

• Vancouver School Board fired by B.C. education minister
• Vancouver School Board votes for more public input on closures
• Vancouver school closures: preliminary list released

Not 'in the near future'

The minister dismissed the NDP-organized event as political grandstanding but did try to allay fears of school closures in the short term.

"If you're a student, if you're a parent in Vancouver, you do not need to be worrying about school closures right now," the minister said.

Bernier said the newly-appointed official trustee for the district, Dianne Turner, will now be responsible for all the board's duties — including long-range facilities planning.

So, it's up to her whether schools will close to save money in the face of declining enrolment, and declining dollars-per-pupil that come with that.

Bernier said Turner told him, "it's nothing she's considering any time in the near future."

It's not clear how long "right now" or the "near future" is.

Bernier also wouldn't say what he would do if Turner decided, for whatever reason, to close schools in Vancouver.

"I don't want to speculate on that," he told reporters.

Turner will do the job of the entire board, including holding public meetings, for a period of at least one year, the ministry said.

She had been working for the B.C. Ministry of Education as chief educator, under secondment from her job as superintendent of the Delta School District.

But she is not currently an employee of the ministry, and Bernier said he will deal her in the same way he does any other school board in the province.