Author Archives: cmenzies

University Town parents’ place their choices on the top of the UEL vote!

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University Town parents and community members identified five top choice candidates for school board. The local issue of new schools was a driving factor behind many University Town voters. Through a community-based process candidates who had demonstrated their concern and capacity for action were endorsed locally. The results show that, at least in our local voting, that our choices were on the top. We still have a lot of ground to cover though. Of the 5,800 odd people registered to vote only 423 actually voted. While some might say it is due to lack of engagement. It may be more appropriate to suggest that the biased manner by which election for the school board is managed is more at fault. The majority of University Town residents received NO OFFICIAL notification of the election. It was only through our local networks, such as the University neighbourhoods Association, that any notification was sent out. This is simply one more element of the democratic deficit that our community suffers from.

Nonetheless, we should take pride in the fact that our choices topped our local polling division. In addition we can very likely claim that our votes were significant to electing one of our strongest allies at VSB, Carol Gibson who just held on to her seat by 66 votes.
VSB-2008-small.png
BACCHUS, Patti VV 245
LOMBARDI, Mike VV 229
CLEMENT, Ken VV 225
GIBSON, Carol NPA 214
WONG, Allan CPE 201


VSB Trustee Candidates answer question concerning needed U Hill Schools

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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?

Vision Vancouver education platform

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Vision platform to limit class size, advertising in schools

VANCOUVER I Vision Vancouver says its school trustees would reduce class size, limit corporate advertising in schools and work to eliminate student fees if elected Nov. 15.

In an education platform to be released today, the party also promises to lobby for more government funding, allow community use of school buildings and press the Education Ministry to hasten its plan for seismic upgrades.

Vancouver School Board Candidates speak at UBC

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Ethnographic Film Unit at UBC

The University Neighbourhoods Association hosted an all candidates forum for school board trustees on Oct. 22, 2008 at the Old Barn Community Centre in Hawthorn Place.

The trustees who participated were as follows. From COPE: Al Blakey, Bill Bargeman, Alvin Singh, and Alan Wong. From NPA: Ken Dynike, Carol Gibson, and Heather Holden. From Vision Vancouver: Patti Bacchus, Ken Clement, and Mike Lombardi.

Community members present were asked to fill out an exit survey to identify their top choices of candidates at the meeting and the highpoints of the meeting. Four candidates stood out for audience members from the UNA/UBC area: Patti Bacchus (Vision), Carol Gibson (NPA), Mike Lombardi (Vision), and Alan Wong (COPE). Many positive things were said about all of the candidates who participated.

Supporting Effective Leadership in School Board

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Elect Charles Menzies -Metro Vancouver Director Electoral Area A: Supporting Effective Leadership in School Board

As residents in the UBC/UEL portions of Electoral Area ‘A’ we are also able to vote for candiadtes to the Vancouver Board of Education. Being able to have a voice and an impact in the Vancouver Board of Education discussions is critically important for our community.

Over the past decade essentially uncontrolled development at UBC and in the UEL has increased the pressure on our two local schools -University Hill Elementary and University Hill Secondary. Both schools are seriously over capacity and many of our more than 1500 school aged children are forced to find school placements outside of our community. This has to stop.

Vancouver’s Secret Schools Report

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Vancouver Sun blogs

While attention was focused on that west-side neighbourhood, everyone knew a broader report about facility use across the district existed, but no one had seen it. (At least, no one who was willing to speak publicly.)

Former trustee Noel Herron requested the report under the freedom of information law and received a heavily censored copy that he has passed to me.

Out of 58 pages, 38 were fully or partially severed.

This report was discussed at a board of education meeting in June 2007 but I’m told a majority of trustees voted to keep it secret. What has happened to it since then? Will it be on the desk of new trustees after next month’s election or has it become irrelevant?

School Board Elections

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School board elections: Critical but ignored :: The Hook

After the uproar of the federal and US elections, B.C.’s municipal vote on November 15 will cause scarcely a ripple. In North Vancouver District, for example, voter turnout in 2005 was 30 per cent. In the City of North Van, it was 22 per cent.

For North Van School Board chair Chris Dorais, the impending election is full of potential for change. But with no mayoral contests in the City and District, he expects voter turnout to be even lower than usual. A small minority of the electorate will decide on change.

QEA Parents Quite Angry

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Vancouver Sun blogs

Questions that parents from QEA asked VSB staff earlier this week.

“The VSB’s policy manual states ‘We believe in being accountable to the community, and we value and promote open communications’. Many parents at QEA, however, have encountered staff who are openly resentful of their requests to communicate about an issue of concern. Staff at multiple levels of the organization routinely fail to return phone calls or respond to written queries (even over a period of weeks). Chris Kelly, do you or do you not believe that you need to be accountable to the community?”
Also:
“In September, allegations of favoritism were raised in the media because two schools in Premier Gordon Campbell’s riding had been selected for a community-service pilot program. Now it appears that these same two schools and QEA – which was last year saved from liquidation following extensive campaigning by parents – are the only schools in the area to suffer staff cuts. Is there any way in which the allegations of favoritism could have influenced the decisions on school staff transfers, and is this why we have not been allowed to see enrolment and staffing data for other schools in the area?”

QEA parents should do a closer look at staffing across the district. And, there is still the problem that hundreds of children from the university area are being denied a space in their schools as enrolment drops in other areas.