Vision and COPE trustee candidates staged a press conference Tuesday and demanded their NPA opponents state whether they would close schools if elected.
Five schools were considered for closure last year to save a projected $1.4 million.
On Dec. 14, 2010, the board voted for a moratorium on proceeding with any school closure processes until March 1, 2012. It also approved a sectoral review to examine programs offered in six areas of the district.
School board chair Patti Bacchus, a Vision trustee who's seeking re-election, told the Courier Wednesday she doesn't anticipate any scenarios in the next term that could convince a Vision/ COPE board to close schools, such as a school community asking to be amalgamated with another school.
"It would be reasonable to commit to saying we won't close schools against a community's wishes, however," she wrote in an email. "Closure is off the table for Vision/COPE trustees unless the sectoral review leads to a point where a school community is asking to be amalgamated with another school to get better access to programming options. I don't expect that to happen, but it's [not] outside the realm of possibility. I also don't think we can entirely rule out something from the province that would require a school to close, but I'm not anticipating that either."
Bacchus said consultation convinced her that despite the district's financial challenges, closures would cost communities more in human terms than would be realized in savings.
NPA trustee Ken Denike, who abstained from the moratorium vote, told the Courier Wednesday no one can guarantee one way or the other whether they will or won't close schools.
"You can't say you're not going to close schools. You can't say you are going to close schools until you look at the details of what is happening there and in the neighbourhood and the neighbourhood of schools. You may have a very small population at a school but [the school is] necessary in order to keep the mix," he said.
Denike maintains some schools on the board's initial list of 11 that were considered for closure, as well as some on the shortlist of five, shouldn't have been contemplated for closure, pointing to Champlain Heights annex, which is nearly full. Although there's space in the main school for students, Denike argues students would have shifted to a Burnaby school that's closer resulting in the VSB losing students.
"We're not intending to close any schools. In fact we want new schools and we know a way we can get them," he added. "We're pretty sure we can get a new school in Fraserlands and we don't think they can."
The NPA's Carol Gibson, who isn't running for reelection, voted against the moratorium. She maintains the consultation was only "very tangentially" about school closure and called it a "VISION/COPE/NDP political campaign paid for by the VSB."
Public funding for health, education and welfare will always be insufficient to meet all the needs and the wishes of an electorate, according to Gibson, who noted during her career in the education sector she's never heard a president, superintendent or board chair say anything other than "funding is not adequate."
"The role of trustees in public education is to govern and to advocate. In the governance role, it is irresponsible to prematurely close off options to use available resources effectively and efficiently, particularly when claiming that there are insufficient resources," she said. [email protected] Twitter: @Naoibh
