BURST
Some east Vancouver parents say the city’s school board and city council are failing their neighbourhoods, as one elementary school faces permanent closure and another faces having part of its grounds leased to a private developer.
The Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council, which represents parents in the district, is calling both moves “short-sighted cash grabs” that would reduce public school land at a time when enrolment is rising and some schools in the district are already stretched thin.
Council chairwoman Melanie Cheng and other parents are urging the school board and the city to halt rezoning of Sir Sandford Fleming Elementary School and reconsider the proposed closure of Sir Guy Carleton Elementary School, warning that both reflect a lack of long-term planning for public education in their fast-growing communities.
“We’re losing land meant for children in neighbourhoods that are only going to grow,” Cheng said on Friday.
Sir Guy Carleton, near Kingsway and Joyce Street, has been closed since a fire in 2016. The Vancouver school board is now considering shutting it down permanently after the province denied several funding requests to repair the building, which is considered unsafe and unsuitable for use.
As part of the closure process, the board is required to consider whether the site could be used by the Conseil scolaire francophone, B.C.’s French-language school board, which has long sought a permanent location in Vancouver.
While the board, which announced the plan Wednesday, projected that nearby schools can accommodate students in the long-term, some parents say that doesn’t match the day‑to‑day reality.
“We’re seeing local families have to split up their kids across multiple schools just to find a spot — even though they live near Carleton,” said Cheng, who lives nearby and has two children.
Public consultation on Carleton’s future is underway through October and November, with a final vote by trustees expected later this year.
Over at Sir Sandford Fleming, near East 49th Avenue and Knight Street, the city released a report recommending a rezoning application that would allow the school’s former basketball courts to be developed into a six-storey, 87-unit apartment building with retail space on the ground floor. The land was leased to Vittori Developments in 2024 for 99 years in exchange for a one-time payment of $8.5 million. Seventeen of the units are reserved as below-market rentals for school district staff.
Cheng worries that leasing part of the school grounds could further reduce Fleming’s capacity.
She pointed to the city’s report, which relied on enrolment projections from the school board’s 2020 long-range facilities plan. That plan projected declining enrolment and estimated the school would be at just 76 per cent of its 398-student capacity by 2031.
But more recent figures from June tell a different story. That report from the school board’s facilities planning committee projected Fleming’s enrolment would reach 418 students by 2031 — well above its intended limit. It also indicates the school is already at a 107 per cent capacity.
“The school board is using outdated information to justify selling off its land for quick money,” Cheng said.
“By removing that land, they’re directly impacting the school’s ability to handle future student enrolment. By the time those condos are built, kids living in them won’t be able to attend school at Fleming due to overcrowding.”
Cheng also raised concerns about what both land-use plans could mean for other school land in the district.
“The school board is the second-largest landowner in Vancouver. If they’re willing to subdivide one school site, what’s stopping them from doing it again?”
In July, Postmedia News used land ownership databases and tallied 223 properties owned by various Vancouver school district entities, including the “board of education,” “school district No. 39,” and “board of school trustees,” with a combined assessed value of more than $9.5 billion.
“It starts with these schools, but it could be your community that is affected next if nothing is done,” said Cheng.