Opinion: Vancouver schools need a joint planning agreement for a thriving society and economy (Vik Khanna, Chair of District Parent Advisory Council)

The following is an opinion received from Vik Khanna, Chair of the Vancouver School District Parent Advisory Council (DPAC), which is collection of parents (elected by PACs) working with the common goal of supporting education for all children of Vancouver. Related, please see “Yes-or-no vote expected at VSB special meeting April 11.”

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As parents, we all want our children to have access to world-class education. It’s a basic expectation that every family has when building a life in Vancouver. However, the Vancouver School Board’s (VSB) lack of transparency and refusal to plan for growth threaten to undermine the quality of education for Vancouver students. Moreover, 11 high schools and 34 elementary schools in Vancouver are not seismically safe, posing a significant risk to students’ safety. The VSB’s failure to produce accurate and transparent enrollment forecasts, its low public participation rate, and discrepancies with the Ministry of Education and Child Care further erode public trust.

We urgently call for Vancouver’s City and School Board leadership to take action and collaborate on the city’s social infrastructure strategy, with a focus on developing compact, walkable, low-carbon neighborhoods that prioritize the importance of the neighborhood school. The VSB is currently unprepared to handle the significant growth in housing and immigration that Vancouver is experiencing. This year, the VSB missed its enrolment forecast by over 3.5% (1,600 more students than anticipated), that’s a record screw up, and it’s becoming increasingly evident that their enrolment numbers are potentially suspect, possibly inaccurate, and certainly shortsighted. The VSB denies Ministry of Education projections of an additional 5,000 kids, and instead is planning to *lose* 5,000 children in our schools – that’s no way to plan for our future. A difference of 10,000 students in a district with 50,000 students is a big difference.

Above: Image from a DPAC presentation shows that the school catchments of 6 out of 12 schools under consideration for closure in 2010 ended up having high utilization (i.e., demand) in 2019, only 9 years later. The public is right to question school enrollment projections.

This highlights the responsibility for the City to provide needed leadership, as the lack of school spaces and educational resourcing in the city will be matters affecting social infrastructure, resiliency, quality of life, affordability, and economy. More safe and modern schools are needed to accommodate the growing number of students and provide for emergency preparedness for dual purposes of community use during a crisis and education delivery after a crisis. School properties also offer opportunities for colocation of social infrastructure on large sites (child care, seamless day school age care, community spaces, arts and non-profit spaces, affordable housing, workforce housing, commercial, office flex spaces, etc.) or even two public schools. [Link to Canoe Landing]

A large part of the VSB’s decline over the last two decades has as much to do with students leaving the VSB or not entering the VSB as the growth of independent schools in Vancouver has exploded – because families can’t access reliable and quality education opportunities for their kids. The VSB’s public participation rate has steadily decreased over the past two decades, with a current rate of just 76%, yet the VSB believes that it is several percentage points higher. Data on where students go is not tracked. We know that many leave the city and go to other suburban districts as we have all heard stories of young people moving to Maple Ridge because places like Olympic Village and River District make it hard and expensive for families to attain education for their kids. Many schools are full, relying on Kindergarten lotteries for the chance to get in. We also know that droves of parents elect independent schools due to a variety of VSB issues. The VSB ought to be doing exit interviews to find out exactly why those families chose independent over public schools. For sure, the exact mix of reasons for leaving is unclear. But whatever it is, continued flows to independent are not feasible in the long run as independent schools are at capacity.. [Link to data]

Vancouver is rapidly becoming a city without families, a city that’s dying through gerrymandered school planning, and it is becoming one because the information that the VSB currently provides the City for “School Context” is inadequate for the City to plan the social infrastructure the residents require. Urgent action is needed to ensure that Vancouver’s education system can accommodate its growing population and provide a safe and high-quality education for its students. Parents and all concerned citizens must demand a Joint Planning Agreement that prioritizes the importance of neighbourhood schools, and centres collaborative planning between the VSB, City Council, and the Province in order to guarantee a growing and thriving city that places families and their children first.

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Vik Khanna is a Vancouver-based technology entrepreneur. His three children have all gone through Vancouver’s public education system. Since 2019, he has been a powerful advocate for public education, fighting for policies that promote fundamental fairness and quality education. He served as Vancouver DPAC Vice Chair for 2021-2022 and as Chair for 2022-2023 [corrected]. He is also chair of the Vancouver DPAC Facilities Committee.