Say No to School Closures in Renfrew Collingwood
The BC Liberal government is failing our children and education in Renfrew-Collingwood will pay a severe price – unless we work together to keep our schools strong.
Sir Guy Carleton, Graham Bruce and Collingwood Neighbourhood School are all on the list for possible closure as a direct result of the BC Liberal government underfunding of public education and strict direction from the province to close schools – primarily on the east side. The announcement of a list of possible school closures was released by the Vancouver School Board on June 23, 2010.
The three schools are home to 100 Kindergarten students and 650 students from Grade 1-7. These are anything but empty school buildings. All three are dynamic, excellent schools which deserve our support.
The effect of the closure of any of these schools will be profound. For example, both Grenfell Elementary and Weir Elementary, the closest schools to Carleton and Bruce, are currently filled beyond their capacity. There is no room there. The closure of schools will dramatically change catchment areas across our neighborhood creating instability everywhere.
The closure of any of these three schools would fundamentally change our neighborhood. These are not frills or extras – schools are core public services that make our community a great place to live and secure the future by offering students a quality education. By putting Carleton, Bruce and Collingwood on the list for possible closure, we also face the risk of being divided, one school community against the other - at a moment when we all must come together.
And the Provincial government – while forcing the closure of schools in our community – has approved project after project in the Premier’s own riding. In our constituency, not a single seismic upgrade has been approved even though the government specifically promised them more than 5 years ago. There are more projects ongoing in Gordon Campbell’s riding than the rest of the city combined. Enough is enough of this unfair treatment.
One thing is clear – unless we work together to stop the closures of Bruce, Carleton and Collingwood, all of our schools will be negatively affected.
On July 15th I held a public meeting to start to plan our response to the BC Liberal government’s actions and the Vancouver School Board’s preliminary list. The response was fantastic, and it was great to see so many concerned parents, students, and alumni of these three schools come out to save our schools.
We are gathering petitions and letters in support of our schools and we also want to hear your ideas for what we can do to convince the government and the school board that closing our schools would be a grave mistake. You can get copies of the petition and some ideas for letter writing from my Community Office, located at 5022 Joyce St, (just north of the Joyce-Collingwood SkyTrain station), or from my website at www.adriandix.ca. As always, you can call us at 604.660.0314, or send me an email at adrian.dix.mla@leg.bc.ca.
Ron Eikenberry collects 1,680 signatures against the HST
My friend and neighbour Ron Eikenberry joined me in Victoria on the last day of the fall session to present 1,680 signatures in opposition to the government’s proposed Harmonised Sales Tax. The HST is the wrong tax at the wrong time, and I would like to thank Ron for his work over the fall in singlehandedly collecting signatures from so many in our community.
