Tuesday, February 17, 2009
I Support Rebuilding Our Schools
This post contains some of the powerful and striking emails that are being sent to Premier Campbell from community members concerned for the health of our local schools. Until Monday, February 16th, we had all thought that the long standing school problem had been solved. But there is now yet another delay from the province. We all hope it is a minor matter. In the meantime we are emailing the Premier to ask him to help make certain that schools get rebuilt in our community.
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20 comments:
I am writing to you about the much needed schools in the University Hill area of the Vancouver School District. As you may know there is a long standing need for proper rebuilt schools. Several hundred of our younger children are bussed out of our community everyday to go to school. Those of our older children who are lucky enough to have a place in our community
high school have to attend school in building that is seriously in need of rebuilding. There is a plan ready to go. Your officials have had it in their hands for some time now. We need your help to put these plans to work.
Help us get our schools rebuilt soon!
Rebuilding the university hill area schools will be a positive contribution. The money that will be spent will provide jobs for people who need them, spill over effects for business of all levels and, most importantly, will provide needed schools for children who deserve a proper safe and
appropriate school facility.
Charles Menzies (UHS PAC Co-Chair)
Dear Premier Campbell,
dear education ethusiasts,
I have just learnt that VSB has deferred passing the capital funding
by-law for rebuilding university hill schools by direction of high level Ministry of Education staff. I can only say "Mamma mia, here we go again ...", only that this is not funny anymore after years of deferring.
While I trust that the high level Ministry staff has a high level view of things and acts with the best of intentions, I respectfully ask you, Premier Campbell, and your staff to pay a visit to your former school and make yourself a picture of what students and teachers have to put up with. And these are the lucky ones ... not like the 200+ elementary school kids who did not find a spot in their neighborhood school.
Please, Mr. Campbell, advise your staff to approve the by-law necessary to rebuild our schools. The only good thing that could come out of further delay and political games is that somebody will write a satire about first-class education in a university neighborhood.
Help us get our schools rebuilt soon!
Sincerely,
Dr. Lutz Lampe
Dear Mr. Campbell,
Upon hearing that the rebuilding plans of schools at UBC had been deferred I was extremely shocked and appalled. Being a former student of both University Hill Elementary and University Hill Secondary, I know firsthand what it is like to attend those schools.
I remember how long it took to walk all the way to the elementary school, and how my parents had to wake me up extremely early just so they could walk me there on time and then head to work. Even when we drove, the traffic was awful because the majority of people were driving their children and the entire cul-de-sac near the school would get clogged up with cars. Not only this; but the school is in an area surrounded by forest where anything or anyone can be hiding. I still remember in grade 3 when a friend of mine was approached by a stranger who came out of the forest, putting the entire school on high alert. The fact that young children are STILL walking such a far way near dangerous forests just to get to school boggles my mind.
University Hill Secondary, on the other hand, has a different issue. That school is literally falling apart. We used to eat our lunches on the disty floors of the school for lack of a better place to sit. I remember my first day of grade 8, looking up at the ceiling in one of the English classrooms and seeing the water stains. I was disgusted and, throughout my 5 years in that building, I watched those stains get bigger and bigger. Not to mention that the building is extremely overcrowded and not built to accomodate the amount of students that attend. I remember being in grade 10 and hoping that we would be getting a new school sometime soon, and when we heard news that it would probably happen when we were already graduated, my friends and I were extremely jealous. At the same time, I was excited for all the other students that would get to attend a brand new school.
When I heard yesterday that the plan had been deferred, I was outraged. Being a student at Simon Fraser University, I have seen the effects of budget cuts on my post-secondary education. Some of my favourite professors at the university have now lost their jobs. I was hoping these problems would not effect secondary and elementary schools because, afterall, these children are the future and they are the ones who deserve the best education possible in the best atmosphere possible.
Hopefully you will take into account the fact that the plans have already been prepared for rebuilding the high school and that you can help put it into action in the very near future.
Help our community get our schools re built soon!
Sincerely,
Zlatina Pacheva
Dears Sirs/Mesdames,
I am devastated to hear of yet another delay and possibly fatal blow to the renewal of the University Hill Elementary and University Hill High Schools.
There is obviously a hardship on children when they can’t attend school in their community. I’m sure you can imagine all of these and they will be well illuminated by other parents. What you may not fully appreciate is the economic burden and associated mental health problems you impose when you make it impossible for a child to attend his or her community school. Please let me tell you just one story I know of – and I’m happy to give other examples at your request.
My friend, TJ, after completing three graduate degrees and a post-doctoral fellowship was offered her dream job at UBC. Most academic appointments begin on July 1 and it was no different for Dr. TJ. So after moving to Vancouver sometime in June, TJ went to register her grade 1 daughter in school. TJ never imagined the nightmare that was looming. In August (!) she was advised that there was no room for her daughter in any area school but that the VSB was looking for a space “somewhere in Vancouver”. A space was found so at least her daughter had a place to go on that all important first day of school (remember this little girl is in Grade 1 and this was really her first day of school ever!). TJ was advised that the VSB does not bus students anywhere so it would be her responsibility to get her daughter to and from school. Oh, and another thing, there was no space in the afterschool care program at this school. TJ was out of luck and on her own.
Well, to condense a year of agony into a few sentences, TJ did her best to meet her obligation to her beautiful 6-year old and to her new job but it was impossible. As a new faculty member, TJ had no option about when to teach her classes and had little ability to control the scheduling of her other activities. She was constantly having to ask colleagues to cover for her while she ran out to pick up her daughter. After great difficulty finding anyone who wanted to work part-time, she hired two different care givers to pick up and care for her daughter after school. One was unreliable. The other was volatile and traumatized the little girl terribly. TJ’s colleagues tired of her not being able to be where she was supposed to be when she was supposed to be there. TJ’s daughter was transforming from a confident, bubbly, outgoing girl into a non-speaking, sad, scared little girl. Its career suicide to leave a tenure-track position but TJ felt her first obligation was to her daughter. She resigned before she was fired and a brilliant woman with two masters degrees, a PhD, and an enormously promising research program went to live with her mother.
Your refusal to act ruined a career and devastated lives. TJ is teaching at an American university now though the hiatus in her research essentially has derailed a life’s work. There is intense competition in some of the sciences and speed of research will determine who gets published, who gets the grants, etc. Still, TJ marvels at how in this not-so-affluent American community, the school board feels such a strong sense of responsibility to its students.
This is a dramatic story but its important for you to understand that when you force parents to paste together a mish-mash of bad options, families suffer terribly. Please consider this – TJ’s story is horribly but it could have been worse. What if she worked at Zellers or MacDonald’s and could not have picked-up her daughter after school every day. The lower one is on the economic scale, the fewer the options.
When you rob a child of a chance to go to a community school, you rob them of the ability to attend their after-school program, of their ability to walk home safely with friends should an after-school program not have space. You rob families of their ability to make ends meet because of the necessity of driving their kids to school and picking them up. You subject that family to such stress that mental illness is the typical result. You begin to unravel our communities and our society.
You hold an essential but crumbling part of our community structure in your hands. What will you choose? I urge you in the strongest possible way to choose a strong community which contributes to a healthy, productive, economically strong society. We need community schools. They are a building block of a thriving society. Your responsibility here is weighty. Do the right thing. Your job is to remove the roadblocks to the renewal of our schools, not to construct more roadblocks.
When you err, the consequences are distributed unevenly – the poor and the single parents fare the worst. The single parents and the economically disadvantaged (and consider that there is significant overlap in these demographic categories) bear the brunt. As a single parent, I am filled with anxiety about your choices and like my friend, everyday wonder if I can continue to live here despite a fulfilling career and a neighborhood my daughters adores. I hope you will do the right thing for our community and our society but you choices also will affect me on a deeply personal level. I implore you to finally do the right thing for people like my child and I.
Hopefully,
Denise Lauritano
Dear Mr. Campbell, Ms. Bond and VSB Trustees,
I just got an email from the University Hill Elementary School PAC President warning the parents that there might be another delay in the project for the new secondary and new elementary school at UBC/UEL. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!! The parents, children and teachers of UHill Schools have put up long enough with poor conditions and overcrowdness in these schools. The capital project bylaw has to be passed ASAP so that we can move into new schools as it was promised to us.
Sincerely,
Sanja Rogic, PhD
Dear Mr. Campbell, I am writing to you about the much needed schools in the University Hill area of the Vancouver School District.
Your recently announced economic plans promised no cuts to education so now is the time to get moving on these much needed schools. This is an issue of critical importance to parents in your riding, an important voting block in the upcoming election.
Sincerely,
Nancy Mahony
Dear Premier Campbell and Minister Bond,
I understand that the Ministry advised the VSB that the by-law for new schools at UBC could not be considered at their meeting on Feb. 16. I hope that, whatever the
issue is, this can be resolved right away, so that the VSB can proceed right away with building the urgently needed schools.
- Brian Marcus
Dear Premier Campbell,
I have just learned that the Vancouver School Board's proposal for rebuilding schools in the University Hill area has been turned back by your government.
I am startled by this news. The proposal your government received is a good one. It is strongly endorsed by the University Neighbourhoods Association and the U-Hill PACs. It was arrived at after many years of neglect of our community. University Secondary School has been allowed to deteriorate to a point that should be an embarrassment to everyone. Several hundred elementary area children are unable to attend their catchment school. The rebuilding of schools in the University Hill area has been delayed and delayed. Further delay is simply intolerable.
I am Chair of the University Neighbourhoods Association and the UNA will be responding officially shortly. But, I write today as a deeply concerned parent and as your constituent. We need your help. Please direct your government to approve the VSB plan so that we avoid any further delay in addressing the inexcusable, school crisis facing our community.
Sincerely,
Mike Feeley
My name is Mankee Mah. I have 2 school-age children. I am the PAC co-chair for University Hill Elementary and the parent volunteer coordinator for our community Bus Program that helps transport K-7 children between the UEL/UBC community and their schools.
By now, you all know the extremely overcrowded schools our children must go to everyday (at University Hill Elementary and University Hill Secondary) and the hundreds of children that are unable to attend their local schools.
There is strong support from the community and from the school board to build new schools in our community. There is money set aside to build the new schools.
So, I fail to understand what more we need to do to get the Ministry to make what is really a no-brainer decision. That is, to approve a plan to expand the current secondary school and to build a new elementary school at UEL/UBC. Currently, this community does not have the school spaces to accommodate almost 700 K-12 students.
Your delayed action to approve the new schools is leaving us with little choice but to go public, very public, with this government’s inability to provide public schools for children where they need them.
It is very ironic that one of the 2010 Olympics’ main venue will be taking place right here in our community. The new Olympic arena at UBC will bring people and media from around the world. The Hockey Canada Cup for Sledge Hockey tournament will be playing at the new UBC arena next week. VANOC wants to show off their new arena. If we don’t get approval by then, you can count on us to be there too, with our signs!
Sincerely,
Dear Mr. Campbell, I am writing to you about the much needed schools in the University Hill area of the Vancouver School District.
How long can a world class university continue to tolerate such a totally inadequate school for the children of its academics and staff?
Kind Regards,
Jayne Booth
(parent and supporter of the teachers at University Hill Secondary School who strive to teach well in an inadequate environment - spend a day there if you don't believe how urgent this is)
Dear Mr. Campbell,
I know that times are difficult and that everyone thinks that their
problem is the worst. But in the case of the University Hill Secondary in Vancouver BC, I think a case can be made for immediate
action. I challenge anyone to find a school anywhere with worse
conditions for students. School composed entirely of ancient
portables? Check. Classrooms smell of mold? Check. No cafeteria?
Check. Students eat lunch on muddy floors in hallways? Check.
I couldn't believe that this dilapidated disaster of a school is one of the highest achieving schools in Canada. . . .
I know it seems awkward to put scarce funds into such a high achieving school when lower achieving schools are in need of funds as well. But any fact finding mission will verify that the situation here is dire.
Please help us.
Thank you for your consideration of this matter,
Denise Brooks
To all concerned,
I am disappointed to hear the news regarding the Ministry of Education's request to the Vancouver School Board to pause the process meant to create proper facilities for children in the area of UBC. As you know we have waited years for the planning process to conclude and all believed that we were finally at a stage where concrete actions could start taking place (ie. building and renovating the buildings). I can only imagine that the delay is due to the recent budget and the deficits that will be run. Of course prudent financial management is critical - not only in uncertain times like these but at all times. Hopefully this is just to allow proper evaluation of the numbers given the times we live in and it will not result in a delay in the completion of the project.
I would urge you to look within your organizations for efficiencies, for redundancies, for proper business management...for savings in operational costs. We all know that large corporations (private, public) have inefficiencies. Rid yourselves of them and continue investing in the future of the school system and in our most precious resource - the children who are our future.
My opinion is, and continues to be reinforced by the actions of government and bureaucratic organizations, that your focus is not on the constituents and their needs. The focus appears to be on securing budget, the financial process and getting elected to office. Please think of those who you are meant to (hired to? elected to?) serve and those who honour you via election and pay your salaries through our hard earned income.
Please.....do not pause the process.
Best regards,
Olivier de Sousa
The current situation is detrimental to our community, to the environment and to the lives of families living on UBC campus. Please do not delay the building of new schools on campus any further. Help us get our schools rebuilt soon!
Janice Milnerwood
(mother of 2 boys, living on UBC campus)
Dear Mr. Campbell and colleagues,
As a UBC professor and resident, parent of an 11 year old, and member of the University Neighborhood Association Board, I am writing to you about the urgent need for schools in the UBC area. This region has produced some of the most talented students in the province, but this can’t continue if the schools continue to be underfunded, and if plans for remedying for this are once-again postponed.
Thank you for considering this -- I hope you will remedy this situation as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Erica
Erica Frank, MD, MPH
Dear Mr. Campbell,
I am writing to you about the recent announcement to halt the approval process for new schools at UBC and in the UEL. I am a resident of UBC and an employee of UBC. I have lived at UBC for nearly four years and have two school-aged children, who have both attended out of catchments elementary schools (Queen Elizabeth). My daughter now attends UHill Secondary.
The need for neighbourhood schools goes beyond the desire to keep our
children close by. It also affects the fabric of our community. Bussing kids to school means fewer contacts between parents and teachers and other families. This tends to translate into fewer play dates and friendships. These social costs also impact the families of cross-boundary kids. The UBC neighbourhoods are a fledgling community in great need of neighbourhood institutions including schools. Our schools help us to identify our sense
of place and forever remain part of our childhood memories.
As my daughter experienced this year, as a cross boundary elementary
students transitioning to high school, she had to give up her group of friends to become an in boundary student. While we are now among the 'lucky' families with a space in our neighbourhood high school, the school is overcrowded, and lacks such basic facilities as adequate bathroom capacity, and a place to eat lunch. My daughter's science class is taught in shop, which means that she will not be able to have real labs.
The community in which these schools sits has an image problem which may contribute to the lack of political will to commit resources. It includes many UBC student families, including many non-Canadians, who do not vote in civic or provincial elections. It also includes a segment perceived as privileged. I know many of my neighbours, and there is no sense of privilege here. We are working families, many of which include UBC
employees, many who contribute to our communities and school through
volunteering, including serving on advisory boards that helped develop this plan. We are committed to building communities and neighbourhoods but we need your help.
I doubt that I am saying anything new. You are surely very familiar with the issues that contribute to this situation. The plan that has been put developed is sensible and needs to be implemented. The community has waited many years for proper schools. It is simply the right thing to do.
Sincerely,
Jeannette Whitton
Dear Mr. Campbell
I am writing to you with a near-desperate plea. Our young people, the future of our community and country, are being treated with about as much respect and dedication as we’ve shown to our environment. Our young people are not disposable. They need our attention and need it now.
The University Hill area of the Vancouver School District is in serious trouble – the conditions of our high school are embarrassing and unacceptable. Politically and socially, our young people have been put on the “back-burner” for far too many years. Education and health care are the real priorities and with Vancouver on the global radar I am calling on you to show the world your commitments and priorities.
Although I am confident that you are already aware of the situation, I am writing to nudge you to seek out the plan that has been sitting in office – and now has just be PUT ON HOLD!!!
The decision to put this plan on hold could have a negative impact on the plans for the Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth Annex, Jules Quesnel and Queen Mary schools also.
Please, be the leader we need you to be, for our young people.
Kindest regards,
Laura Brodowski and Family
Dear Mr. Campbell, I am writing to you about the much needed schools in the University Hill area of the Vancouver School District. As a parent, and a UBC faculty member, and someone who lives on the UBC campus, I know the urgency of this issue firsthand. As you may know there is a long standing need for proper rebuilt schools. Several hundred of our younger children are bussed out of our community everyday to go to school. Those of our older children who are lucky enough to have a place in our community high school have to attend school in building that is seriously in need of rebuilding. The huge increase in the number of families living on the UBC campus in recent years has led to a crisis situation that is not going to go away anytime soon. UBC is a wonderful place to live and work in many respects except for the inadequate child care and schooling issues. These can cause serious problems for recruitment and retention of faculty, staff and students at UBC. It is in many ways shameful that the province and the city are allowing people's family lives, which are so important to individuals and to their wider social relationships, to suffer in these ways. That children are the ones suffering the most direct impacts from this situation (in the form of attending schools in serious need of rebuilding) is morally inexcusable.
There is a plan ready to go. Your officials have had it in their hands for some time now. The need is obvious and the importance of addressing it should go without saying. Unfortunately, apparently, we have to say it. Economic uncertainty is no excuse for not upholding our basic commitment to the education of children, not to mention for making it harder for parents to work by being uncertain of the conditions under which their children are spending their days. This is precisely NOT the time to let this issue slide.
Sincerely,
Christina Hendricks
Resident and Faculty member at UBC
Dear Mr. Campbell and MLAs,
I am writing to you to support to build new University Hill schools of the Vancouver School District. Several hundred of our younger children are bussed out of our community everyday to go to school. There is a long waiting list. Those of our children who are lucky enough to have a place in our community high school are over crowded. The population in UBC area is rapidly growing, we have to act now.
There is a plan ready to go. We need your help to put these plans to work.
Help us get our schools rebuilt soon! Our children need your help in getting education!
Many thanks.
Yongjun Zhao
Dear Mr. Campbell, I am writing to you about the much needed schools in the University Hill area of the Vancouver School District. As you may know there is a long standing need for proper rebuilt schools. Several hundred of our younger children are bussed out of our community everyday to go to school. Those of our older children who are lucky enough to have a place in our community high school have to attend school in building that is seriously in need of rebuilding. There is a plan ready to go. Your officials have had it in their hands for some time now. We need your help to put these plans to work. Help us get our schools rebuilt soon!
The population pressure on the local schools has grown immensely over recent years and all children in the area are suffering from the increased pressure on resources. While millions of dollars are being spent to support the Olympics and the Province is going to some lengths to make the province more attractive to businesses (and quality of life correspondingly less pleasant for its inhabitants), we do not have suitable school resources to properly train the people who might one day benefit from any new jobs that come into the province, Education should be one of the highest priorities for any government, it is important for society and important for industry. At this time there is simply no sign that it is being taken seriously.
Yours Sincerely
Euan Taylor
Dear Mr. Campbell,
I am writing to you about the much-needed schools in the University Hill area of the Vancouver School District.
We need proper schools so that people who live and work here can be assured that their children have adequate education in their community. There is a plan ready to go that will put schools in pace within two years. Your officials have had the plan in their hands for some time now. We need your help to put these plans to work. Any further delay in addressing this school crisis is irresponsible and not acceptable.
Please help us get our schools rebuilt soon!
Sincerely,
Jianghong An
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