VSB Trustee Candidates answer question concerning needed U Hill Schools

I look forward to hearing back from Trustees with their answer to the following question. Trustee candidates are invited to respond using the comment feature or by sending me an email directly cmenzies[at]interchange.ubc.ca. This issue and the apparent lack of action that has been demonstrated over almost ten year is one of the central reasons that has led me to run for the position of Director on the Metro Vancouver Board for Electoral Area A. Community members living outside of Vancouver proper on the UBC/UNA/UEL areas receive various levels of service and have different levels of access to real political processes. The school issue has reflected the problem inherent in many dealings that residents have with agencies, institutions, and government offices; that is, we don’t have the real power to affect control over critical issues and furthermore, that people outside of our community seem to have more control over what happens in our community then we do. From Park issues to Schools, it would seem that non-resident interests take priority.

So to our Vancouver Board of Education trustee hopefuls please share your answer to the following question:

You have obviously been following the need for schools west of Blanca and the plan that the VSB put together to try and solve the problem. Almost five or six years ago U Hill Secondary was approved for a renovation that would have had the current building expanded by a couple hundred students and able to accommodate them now. Yet here we sit with schools still years away and many parents doubting that we will in fact really see a school.

Aside from lobbying the provincial government, what will you do (or have you done) to make certain that our children living west of Blanca have the same access to community-based public schools that other children in the VSD have?