The Vancouver School Board and parents of Kitsilano secondary students are worried provincial government control over planning the high school's seismic upgrade may dilute community input.
The Ministry of Education approved the almost $60-million project in late 2011. It will transform the school and grounds, but maintain some of the school's heritage features. It's one of the costliest school upgrading projects ever undertaken in the province.
Partnership BC, a provincial entity that deals major infrastructure projects such as hospitals, roadways and bridges, is managing the job due to its cost, size and scope. It's using a design-build procurement process rather than one of the school board's typical procurement procedures called design-bid-build, explained Jim Meschino, the VSB's director of facilities.
"It's a different process for us so we're concerned about ensuring there's enough public consultation built into design-build to make it work," he said.
In design-build, the district outlines requirements and specifications are outlined and three design-build firms, which have architects tied to contractors, are sought to propose the best schemes before one is selected. In design-bid-build, an architect designs the project with district input before it's put out to bid.
School board staff have worked with ministry staff to address the concerns, and several issues have already been resolved.
But a letter to the Ministry of Education has been drafted and was scheduled to go before the board for approval at its July 3 meeting after the Courier's print deadline.
The letter states the district has "urgent objections" about fundamental changes to the project's development and implementation. "These objections include the removal of local authority, minimal consultative input and a growing concern that the outcome may be a less-than-optimal physical and educational facility," the letter states.
Board chair Patti Bacchus said the board wants to ensure the best possible outcome for Kitsilano's upgrade. "The concern that we've had as a board, and that we've certainly heard from the parents at Kits, is the design-build has the potential to leave out that community participation in looking at design, looking at how this process proceeds," she told the Courier-a sentiment echoed by Kitsilano PAC chair Lisa Herrera in an email to the Courier.
"We have concerns that the design-build process could lead to decisions being made without the involvement of key stakeholders, and contrary to what stakeholders have agreed must be included in a renewed Kitsilano secondary," she wrote. "We are very pleased to have the support of the VSB in advancing our views to the Ministry of Education and hope that the VSB's letter to the MOE will result in changes to the [Request For Proposal] evaluation process to allow direct involvement by key stakeholders such as Kits PAC."
A key request noted in the letter is that the project's board have more school district staff on it than provincial representatives, which is not currently the case, but Meschino said progress is being made to resolve the district's outstanding concerns.
"At the end of the day, our intent here is to make it work and get the best possible school we can possibly get for the Kitsilano community and the teachers and students attending, regardless of the procurement fashion. We want to make sure we're engaging the stakeholders as best we can and ensuring we have buy-in from everybody and that everybody's going to like this new school when it gets built," he said.
A Ministry of Education spokesperson would not comment before the board letter arrives at the ministry.
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