Requiem for the Children

City Conversation #109: Vancouver’s School Board starts its hidden plan to sell your children’s schools

Excerpt from Table of Contents of VSB Land Asset Strategy[1]

“You have no questions from the Board—thank you for your comments.”

I had just finished a prepared and rehearsed five minute PowerPoint-supported presentation about how Vancouver’s projected population growth will leave the city short thousands of school spaces[2], what with the Broadway Plan, the Vancouver Plan, the Jericho Lands—all the usual suspects. The Vancouver School Board (VSB) projections over the next 10 years are for a decline of 5,000 students; meanwhile the provincial government projects an increase of 5,000 students, so a 10,000 student spread between them. My conservative calculations, based on the last 4+ years of spot rezonings and area plans in progress captured in my Homes for Whom[3] database, indicated more than 15,000 added students—but then, I’ve been tracking every development in the city rather than guessing from historical data.

To be clear, if the school board could put a student in every one of the seats they estimate will be vacant by 2032 (their exact number is 11,693), then my 15,000+ estimate reduces to about 4,000 seats missing—but those 4,000 mean insufficient space in half the city’s neighbourhoods, concentrated in the neighbourhoods most impacted by the Broadway Plan and the Jericho Lands: Kitsilano; Mount Pleasant; Fairview; and West Point Grey.

I have made many presentations to Vancouver City Council over the past few years—always researched, always backed by data, always rehearsed to meet time limits, always professional. Even when they (frequently) disagreed with me, Council always asked probing questions, as they should. Never had a presentation been met with such deafening silence as by the VSB trustees—as was the case with the presentation following, from a local community advocate, and most others. It felt like the fix was in.

Never mind the facts and the logic of a city promoting dramatic housing increases while shuttering and selling schools. A week after hearing but not responding to public comments and presentations, VSB Trustees voted to dispose of the Queen Elizabeth Annex (QEA), with the newly elected ABC Board members and the surviving Greens voting en bloc.

We don’t know what “dispose of” means, but the very next day after the disposal decision was reached, movers arrived at QEA and began to pack up its library—never mind that the school is currently occupied and the school year continues into June.

The westside dismissers amongst you may say “Suck it up.” But please know that VSB has a list of forty properties around the city they propose to dispose of. I am told half of them are existing schools, but I can’t tell for sure because three quarters of the taxpayer funded VSB Land Asset Strategy[4] is redacted—the entire list of property to be disposed of is blacked out, the disposition schedule is blacked out, the disposition approach is blacked out. All of it.

Part of the list of 40 VSB “Potential Surplus Sites”—find your local school!

Will QEA and the other 39 hidden VSB properties be sold for development? Leased short or long term? Traded for legal or other concessions? Given away? Not for the likes of the city’s residents to know that.

Democracy in action courtesy of the elected Vancouver School Board Trustees.

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Today’s questions: Whose 10-year enrolment projections do you believe? VSB (-5,000); BC Ministry of Education (+5,000); or mine (+15,000). Why or why not? And if you have school aged children, what have you heard about the future of their schools?

I read and respond to all comments, also capturing them to relevant neighbourhood files for more detailed future conversations.

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Brian Palmquist is a Vancouver-based architect, building envelope and building code consultant and LEED Accredited Professional (the first green building system). He is semi-retired for the moment, still teaching, writing and consulting a bit, but not beholden to any client or city hall. These conversations mix real discussion with research and observations based on a 45+ year career including the planning, design and construction of almost every type and scale of project, including schools. He is the author of the Amazon best seller “An Architect’s Guide to Construction” and working on a book about how we can accommodate a growing population in the Vancouver we love.



[1] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_JzUWNx88o5Q7iq5je422Ei5_OtaLMoN/view

[2] https://brianpalmquist.substack.com/p/selling-off-school-lands-while-welcoming

[3] https://brianpalmquist.substack.com/p/hiding-in-plain-sightand-how-we-can

[4] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_JzUWNx88o5Q7iq5je422Ei5_OtaLMoN/view