THE DRAGON'S PEN
/by Henry MacDougall
(click images to enlarge)
SCHOOL BOARD RESPONSES TO QUESTIONNAIRE
Close to two months ago now, I sent out some questions to the newly sworn-in Vancouver School Board (VSB) trustees asking their positions regarding some current issues in the community. I have now received two responses, one Patricia MacNeil, VSB communications directorr, and one from the trustee Janet Fraser of the Green Party.
Vancouver School Board director of communications Patricia MacNeil.
Here are some key highlights from the communications department’s response.
Q: The redevelopment of King George Secondary: For a couple of years now, the talk of the town has been the redevelopment of King George Secondary. I’m wondering what your timeline is for the redevelopment, as well as where the students will go to school during the reconstruction. I’m also wondering how long this process will take.
A: The VSB capital plan identifies King George Secondary for a seismic safety upgrade as well as an expansion to allow for increased enrolment. The City of Vancouver is undertaking a visioning process for the site and we are involved in the consultation components underway. The outcome will be a master plan vision for the site. There has been no commitment by the provincial government to do feasibility work for this project, nor any commitment to funding. At present we expect that any redevelopment is a number of years into the future.
Q: Overcrowding in schools: Although I can only knowledgeably speak about the schools closest to me, recent years have brought a large influx of new students. This year, my school expanded even more, to the point of having close to 600 students. (The student population usually fluctuates around 500). This could also complicate the redevelopment. How do you plan on dealing with these issues?
A: Enrolment at King George Secondary has been increasing for many years. In 2013 the school enrolled 462 students and now enrols close to 600 students. The school is considered to be ‘full’, which means that some catchment students cannot be accommodated at the school.
When a catchment student cannot be accommodated at King George, they are placed at Prince of Wales Secondary. It is important to note that class sizes are governed by the collective agreement with teachers, and classes have the same maximum enrolment across the district, including at King George.
The youth population in the King George catchment continues to grow, so continued catchment enrolment pressure is anticipated at the school. The District intends to maintain enrolment at King George within the 600-625 range to maximize the number of catchment students who have access to their catchment school. There will likely continue to be some catchment students who cannot be accommodated at King George and as such they will be attend other schools.
There is an ongoing planning process (WE Connect) in which the VSB is collaborating with city partners and the West End Community Centre to work toward developing options for site redevelopment. The VSB has the goal of building a new, larger, seismically safe school to replace the existing King George school in the future. Capital funding from the provincial government will be required to proceed with this project: increasing enrolment and enrolment pressure are both important considerations for the government when deciding how to prioritize capital funding for new schools.
Q: Decolonization of school names: Lots of schools around Vancouver are named after colonial figures. In fact, my old elementary school, Lord Roberts, is named after a man responsible for the early 1900s concentration camps in South Africa during the Boer War (see West End Voices editorial from last September on the subject here). Do you have plans to rename schools with names like these? If so, what is the timeline for this?
Lord Roberts Elementary and Lord Roberts Annex are examples of schools with problematic colonial era names.
A: Many Vancouver School District schools and facilities received names of prominent historical figures of the time they were built. The legacies of some of these historical figures may no longer align with the values of school communities today. The District also recognizes that discussion and conversations regarding renaming a school can trigger strong emotions.
In October 2018, a Naming and Renaming Working Group formed to review the process that guides the naming of new facilities and the renaming of existing facilities. An update to the process for naming new facilities (here) came into effect in June 2019. The working group then met over the 2019-20 school year to focus on updating the process surrounding renaming existing facilities.
In the fall of 2020, District staff presented a report to the Policy and Governance Committee which outlines proposed revisions to the process of renaming existing school facilities.
The District is committed to following a clear, transparent, inquiry-based process where historical names can be reviewed and considered for possible change. According to the draft revisions of the administrative procedure, the process toward potential renaming can begin one of three ways: if a school has been approved and funded for a full replacement as part of the Seismic Mitigation Program, if the school community brings forward a request, or if the Board passes a motion requesting review of a school name. The district will consider proposals to re-name a school where the existing name is deemed to no longer be serving the needs of the school population or the community and no longer aligns with the district’s core values and strategic priorities. With seismic replacement projects for Matthew Begbie and David Lloyd George, the district is piloting the proposed revised administrative procedure.
Q: The School Liaison Officer program (SLO): In the past, local schools would have a police officer assigned to them, however this program was cancelled recently. After the civic election, I heard that there may be plans to reinstate this program. What are your thoughts on this?
A: The board considered this matter at its most recent public meeting after a notice that a motion made at the 2022-2026 board’s inaugural meeting. The board held three evening sessions to hear perspectives of community members about the possible reinstatement of a program (FYI – a delegation meeting is regularly scheduled the Monday prior to public board meetings and the board extended these to ensure the public had an opportunity to share their input). There was also a public meeting held on Wednesday November 23, to provide the board’s formal stakeholder groups with an opportunity to provide their input ahead of the board’s consideration at its meeting on Monday November 28. During that meeting, a motion directing staff to write to the VPD’s chief constable and the police board to request implementation of a revised and reimagined SLO program, effective and operational no later than September 2023, that takes into consideration the thoughtful inputs and opportunities from the 2021 SLO engagement report along with those from stakeholders and the community. The motion also directs staff to provide updates to the Policy and Governance Committee on progress in development of a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the VPD for a reimagined SLO program, and updates on how this program will work collaboratively with the Safe and Caring Schools team.
RESPONSE FROM TRUSTEE FRASER … Here is the response I received from Trustee Janet Fraser.
Vancouver School Trustee Janet fraser.
I’d like to start by thanking everyone who has taken part in the SLO engagement, whether in 2021 or in this past month.
I was a trustee on the previous board and, after reading the engagement report and hearing from speakers, I voted along with seven other trustees to end the SLO program. In the report 20 percent of the students who responded disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement “I think the SLO program contributes to a sense of safety in schools, but for Indigenous students this was higher at 33 percent and for Black students this was higher again at 60 percent.
These responses to the sense of safety in school were key to my decision when this came to the board in April 2021, at which time there did not appear to be any willingness by the VPD to make changes to the program – for example to have no uniforms or to not have guns.
This decision was in April 2021 – what has changed now the SLO program is before the board again?
The VSB Safe and Caring Schools department was established in September 2021 and is taking on some roles formerly covered by the SLO program.
In November 2021 the BC Human Rights Commissioner released a report, Equity is safer: Human rights considerations for policing reform in British Columbia, that includes recommendation #14: School boards should end school liaison officer (SLO) programs unless they can demonstrate an evidence-based need for them that cannot be met through other means. In making this assessment, school boards must centre the impact of continuing SLO programs on Indigenous, Black and other student populations.
We have learned from some employee groups and speakers that there are now gaps in communications with the police. That situations arise in schools that staff are not trained to handle or responsible for resolving. There continues to be the option of phoning 911 for emergencies, but the direction to call the non-emergency line can take a long time and does not connect to an officer with specific knowledge of working with children, youth or schools. We have not seen the VPD respond to the changes at the VSB or the issues raised in the engagement report.
Earlier this year a new VSB Education Plan and accompanying Equity Statement were unanimously adopted by the board.
And there is no information to suggest there would be a change in student responses since the 2021 engagement.
We are still in a position where we know that 20 percent of all student respondents, 33 percent of Indigenous students and 60 percent of Black students did not think the SLO program contributes to a sense of safety in schools. We also know that 23 percent of all student respondents did not agree that the SLO program contributes to a sense of positive community in schools, and that for Indigenous students those who disagree is 33 percent and for Black students it is 75 percent. If students do not have a sense of safety, do not have a sense of positive community in their school, this will negatively impact their learning.
The new VSB Education Plan and Equity Statement were developed over many months in conjunction with students, stakeholders, local First Nations and the broader Vancouver community. They should guide our district’s relationships with external organizations such as the VPD - the roles and responsibilities, the oversight, and how students, their learning, well-being and sense of belonging, are centred in any relationship.
I am not in support of this motion because, as a trustee, I need to know that the issues identified by students, and in particular by Indigenous and Black students, about their sense of safety and their sense of a positive community have been addressed before any discussions begin on embedding police officers in school communities.
Policing, safety and security are important and nuanced issues, both in society at large and in schools, that need to be addressed in thoughtful conversation.
My hope is that we can do so in a way that is not divisive but instead brings us, all of us, together.
The King George Lobby was ready for the holidays, with a display of items from the school archives.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
Last month the archives club was full of the holiday spirit as members brought out several items from Christmas past, including some artifacts as old as 100 years!
Olive Fulton, a grad from 100 years ago, and some exam results from October 1923.
And keeping up with KG’s traditions, former KG employee and current volunteer Jesse Coomes of the KG Archives club once again decorated the foyer with a festive display, including a cozy chair, a rug, and a tree! Some smaller things were also on display, including some fun vintage books and toys, and a freshened-up display case including more holiday themed objects.
Some Christmas themed items inside the display case, some as old as 100 years.
A cool addition was a collection of artifacts on two former students, Olive Fulton and Laurence Chrismas. This gave us a window into what KG’s past was like for West End students.
PAC DIRECT APPEAL FUNDRAISER
The King George PAC has also launched a direct appeal fundraiser this month with the hope of raising $10,000 for the completion of the modernized weight room, a project that was started in 2019 when the $10,000 Christine Fretwell & Kathryn Gibbons Memorial Gift to West End students was given to the school by the City of Vancouver during the We Choose participatory budgeting program. Learn more about KG PAC fundraising and how to donate here.
Jervis street on December 21.
WINTER WONDERLAND!
As of this writing, Vancouver has received two extreme snowfalls!
Although we did not have a snow day at school, this is because the second (and bigger) snowstorm occurred during the winter break. But who knows, perhaps we will get more snow before the winter is over.
I wish all you readers a happy and fun 2023.
