Vancouver School Board meetings attracted large crowds this spring.
Proposals in the board’s preliminary budget to eliminate the band and strings program that served 52 of 92 elementary schools and the district’s athletic coordinator position brought parents, students, volunteer coaches and members of the community out to protest in droves.
Parents and support service workers implored the board not to eliminate two substance abuse prevention workers in schools and multicultural workers for the Vietnamese and South Asian communities.
In the end, the board took $2.5 million from its emergency reserves to maintain various programs and positions. The VSB trimmed more than $9 million to balance its budget.
The school board granted the elementary band and strings program a year’s reprieve, with the community to help the VSB find solutions to sustain the program without $630,651 from the board.
The VSB preserved the athletics coordinator position and eradicated only one substance abuse prevention worker position and one multicultural worker position.
Consultation about the future of the band and strings program continues.
Controversy concerning the board’s revision of its 10-year-old sexual orientation and gender identity policy caused much distress in 2014.
More than 200 people attended a raucous Lord Byng secondary parent advisory council meeting in May, after then-PAC chair Cheryl Chang wrote a letter urging the VSB to delay passing its draft revised policy, which she considered “seriously flawed.” Strife with the Byng PAC continued at its executive elections in June and into the fall. Chang resigned as PAC chair Oct. 3 and new executive elections happened Oct. 28.
The NPA expelled VSB trustees Ken Denike and Sophia Woo from the party June 13 over comments regarding the sexual orientation and gender identities policy. The pair joined a new civic party called Vancouver 1st, but Denike, Vancouver’s longest serving elected official, saw his streak of electoral success end Nov. 15. Woo lost her trustee seat, too. The pair filed a defamation lawsuit against the NPA and NPA Coun. Elizabeth Ball in the B.C. Supreme Court, Dec. 18, claiming the NPA and Ball published statements that falsely painted them as homophobes who are intolerant of queer and gender variant communities to enhance the NPA party’s image in the lead up to the election.
The sexual orientation and gender identities policy passed June 16 at a crammed meeting at the school board office amid cheers and boos.
The Catholic Independent Schools of the Vancouver Archdiocese announced in July that it, too, had passed a gender policy.
Three Vancouver parents launched a lawsuit against the VSB, Oct. 31. Board media spokesperson Kurt Heinrich said Dec. 12 VSB lawyers are preparing the board’s response for submission later this month.
Amid the sexual orientation and gender identities policy tumult, labour unrest between teachers and their employers intensified.
Teachers started administrative-based job action in April. The B.C .Teachers’ Federation began rotating strikes in May and the B.C. Public Schools Employers’ Association instituted a partial lockout and docked teachers’ pay. A full-scale strike started mid-June and summer school was cancelled.
Mediators said the parties’ positions weren’t close enough for them to work their magic and in July the VSB called for binding arbitration.
The first day of school, Sept. 2, came and went.
Teachers voted Sept. 10 in favour of suspending their strike if the government agreed to binding arbitration.
BCPSEA and the government continued to reject binding arbitration.
BCPSEA and the BCTF reached a tentative agreement Sept. 16. Teachers voted to accept a six-year collective agreement Sept. 18. Schools opened their doors to students, Sept. 22.
Only 80 people attended the Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council’s school trustee candidates forum Oct. 23. At least half of those who attended were PAC leaders.
“We thought it would be full because of the strike,” said disappointed VDPAC chairperson Melanie Antweiler.
Those who attended wanted to know how wannabe trustees would handle funding problems. The VSB expects to will grapple with balancing another multi-million dollar shortfall this spring.
Other parents told the Courier they’d attended because they remained concerned about the board’s revised gender identities and sexual orientation policy.
