The Vancouver School Board is putting off a decision to move the Main Street Education Centre out of leased space at 333 Terminal Ave. and into vacant space in its own buildings to allow more time for consultation. The centre is one of six adult education centres run by the district.
The lease for Terminal Avenue site costs the district $600,000 annually, but trustees voted unanimously at their March 5 board meeting to keep the centre at its current location for 2012/13 while it conducts a review of adult education.
Board chair Patti Bacchus, a Vision Vancouver trustee, said there were many unanswered questions at an earlier committee meeting about the impact of relocating the adult education centre.
After a difficult discussion at the committee the recommendation was we need a little more time on this. We need time to properly consult, fully work through the details, come up with a plan and be able to talk with all the various stakeholders, she said.
The district had been considering a couple of options. One was to relocate the program to a heritage building on the Seymour elementary school site, which was closed due to low enrolment. The other was to split up the program into two sitesthe Britannia secondary school property through an expansion of the Hastings Adult Education Centre and to a building popularly known as the barn at John Oliver secondary school, which houses its digital immersion program. The Take a Hike program also uses the barn, but mainly for equipment storage.
Relocating the Main Street Education Centre to save the cash-strapped district money has been talked about for years, including during the school closure debate. If the VSB had shut down an elementary school, it could have been used for the adult education centre. No schools were closed, but the lease payment is still a concern.
Dozens of people showed up at a committee meeting a week before trustees voted on the matter. Bacchus described it as the largest crowd shes witnessed attending such a meeting, which was moved into the boardroom to accommodate the numbers.
She told the Courier this week that VSB staff said a move to the Seymour site would call for a $4 million upgrade to seismic standards because the City of Vancouver considers it a change of use. Students and employees at the education centre also indicated enrolment would drop if it moved to the Seymour site.
The second option to relocate to two sites garnered significant opposition as well.
Bacchus said putting off a decision for another year is difficult and will incur a short-term cost, but it may save money in the longterm since a rushed decision might have unknown long-term implications.
NPA trustee Ken Denike voted with the rest of the board. He maintains there wasnt sufficient consultation about the proposal to split the program into two sites and that his Vision/COPE colleagues didnt expect the reaction they got.
They were going to approve the closure of Main Street. My belief is they came in with that in mind. The Vision/COPE caucus came in with that in mind, saw the crowd and heard there was no consultation.
Twitter: @Naoibh
