Facilities planners reviewed all 110 VSB schools based on level one and two factors for consideration in closing schools as identified in the Long Range Facilities Plan (LRFP). Those factors include:

• Ability to accommodate students in one or two nearby school(s)
• Building condition and deferred maintenance
• Expediting the seismic mitigation program by using a closed school as swing space for temporary accommodation of students and staff from nearby schools set for seismic upgrades
• Current enrolment and future projections
• Assessment of walk distances, transportation routes and catchment sizes for newly created catchments
• Geographical and site considerations, such as major roadways
• Opportunities to consolidate communities and advocate for building a new school
• Cost savings from not operating buildings that could be applied to alleviate projected 2017-18 budget shortfalls and educational programs
• Education and social impacts on students and families, particularly where there are high concentrations of vulnerable students

In collaboration with district educators, staff further examined the impact on educational programs, student needs and learning.

This preliminary list of schools represents those where we have the ability to keep communities together as much as possible with fewer impacts on further change.

Staff will spend the summer reviewing and developing a detailed report on each school, which would include examining factors for vulnerable students at both a school and district level and identifying students who would need extra support if their school underwent a change.

If the trustees approve moving forward with the closure process for one or more schools on this list, extensive consultations with affected communities would begin in early October. Information meetings, feedback sessions, and online feedback methods would be used to hear from each school community advanced for closure consideration about ways of mitigating the impacts of a school closure in their community. Information will  be available at engage.vsb.bc.ca.

In December, following consideration of public consultation with affected communities, reports prepared by a third-party facilitator and staff information, trustees would decide whether school closures would move forward.

Trustees make any decision about whether closures will happen.

After consultation, if approved by the Board, the earliest any school closures would take effect is June 30, 2017 (for the 2017-18 school year).

Temporary accommodation is when available space in a school or schools is used to accommodate staff and students whose school is undergoing seismic upgrading or replacement.

The use of temporary accommodation has proven to be an effective strategy as part of the implementation of several recent and current seismic projects.

In some cases, VSB may need to make use of entire school buildings in order to provide space for students and staff in schools undergoing construction. Excess space or capacity in schools with lower enrolment can also be used to accommodate students and staff whose schools are being upgraded. Different strategies will need to be used in combination to ensure schools can be upgraded quickly.

VSB is currently using two temporary accommodation sites (South Hill and Queen Elizabeth). As many as an additional 3,500 student seats may be required to implement the Seismic Mitigation Program timeline. This could result in the need for the equivalent of up to eight additional temporary accommodation sites (six elementary, two secondary).

The BC Ministry of Education is requiring districts to make use of existing surplus capacity to provide temporary accommodation.

In the event that an entire school site is needed for temporary accommodation, it would first need to be closed. A closed school which is being used to provide temporary accommodations would not count toward calculations of district capacity.

If a school is closed and then used for temporary accommodation, it can often house an entire school population during seismic upgrade. That site could be used many times for temporary accommodation as the seismic upgrading continues over the next 14 years.

The Long Range Facilities Plan (LRFP) was approved by trustees on May 24, 2016 and updated the interim plan submitted in January 2016 to incorporate the results of extensive public consultation.

The updated plan included the following amendments:

• A moratorium on any closure discussions regarding Macdonald School until at least 2020;
• Direction to consider the needs of vulnerable students, families, and communities when considering possible schools for closure.
• The updated LRFP can be found here: http://engage.vsb.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/lrfp-final-report-may-2016-board-approved2.pdf

•  innovative and supportive learning environments
•  seismically safe buildings

•  speeding up seismic upgrades
•  building new schools in areas of growth
•  combining two neighbouring schools to build a new school
•  a closed school could be used for community services

 The Ipsos Reid poll, which was a random sample of Vancouver residents, aligned with the online survey and workshop findings. The top three priorities in the Ipsos poll were:

• Innovative and supportive learning environments
• Seismically safe buildings
• Specialized learning programs and community services

• Building or expanding schools in areas of growth
• The closed school could be used for community services
• It could provide accommodation during seismic construction
• It would speed up seismic upgrading of schools
• It would reduce VSB operating expenses

• The impacts on lower income families
• Need for reasonable geographic access to schools
• Need to work closely with the City of Vancouver in planning for future developments

• Augmenting ministry funding for seismic upgrades to maximize the number of replacement schools built
• Augmenting ministry funding for seismic upgrades to address deferred maintenance on schools being seismically upgraded
• Closing schools with high levels of deferred maintenance

For more information visit:

engage.vsb.bc.ca

• The average age of VSB schools is 73 years, with 50 schools older than 80 years.
• Maintenance has been deferred for many years on VSB schools, leaving more than $700 million in outstanding maintenance costs for major building components such as roofs, fire alarm systems, heating systems, flooring, interior finishes, plumbing, lighting and exterior windows.
• The average cost of deferred maintenance on VSB schools is nearly equal to half the cost of building a new replacement school.
• In Vancouver 20 schools have been seismically upgraded so far and 69 require mitigation work, including five currently in construction, three in design development, 24 approved for feasibility studies and 37 that have not received approval to begin a feasibility study.
• $62.5 million - 12.6% of VSB's operating budget - goes on building operations and maintenance.
• Among large BC school districts, Vancouver spends the most, more than $1,100 per student, on operations and maintenance.
• Including staff, utilities, maintenance and custodial supply costs, each year the costs for running district facilities are, on average, $248,780 for an annex, $566,743 for an elementary school and $1,948,823 for a secondary school.
• At this point, no decisions on closure have been made. If trustees decided to close a school, it would provide one-time savings in deferred maintenance costs of, on average, $1.9 million per annex, $3.9 million per elementary, and $16.9 million per secondary school.
• If trustees decided to close a school, it would avoid one-time seismic upgrading costs of $8-16 million for an elementary school and $30-60 million for a secondary school.