Students at Ideal Mini School in Vancouver are getting an important lesson in civic engagement.
On Tuesday, they learned they will be relocated to Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School’s campus in the fall, something they are strongly opposing. An emergency PAC meeting is being held on Monday.
“They say mental health and student choice is their top priority and yet this dramatic change is going to be… the stress related to it has been very (hard). It will impact our mental health,” said Leo Robinson, an Ideal student.
“When I applied for Ideal, people kept asking me if I was going to stay at Ideal for all five years. And all the time, I said yes but the real question is… is VSB?” Daniel Marques said, another Ideal student.
The plan is to use Ideal’s building for students from the overpopulated Sir Wilfrid Laurier Elementary.
Vancouver School Board trustee Suzie Mah said Sir Wilfried Laurier Elementary already has an annex.
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“The lease is coming up at the end of June. We (should) reopen the annex, start putting students into the Laurier annex and kept Ideal as is and do a review,” said Mah. “VSB) should talk to the community, talk to the students and the parents.”
That building is being leased out to a francophone school, but the lease is up at the end of June.
With about 125 students, Ideal Mini School is the only mini school in the Vancouver School Board’s district that’s housed in its own building.
“There was no consultation from the VSB before they announced this move,” said Jennifer Uegama, Ideal’s PAC chair. “There was no plan for how this program will continue to run at the big school.”
Vancouver School Board offered a statement on Sunday.
“Due to limited space at Laurier Elementary, the District decided to relocate the Ideal Mini program to Churchill Secondary starting from September 2023. This move is necessary to make room for in-catchment students at Laurier Elementary. Churchill Secondary has enough space to accommodate all the current students enrolled in the Ideal Mini program,” staff said in an email.
“The District has exhausted all other space options at Laurier. All 12 classrooms in the main building, as well as the two portables on site, are currently being used for instructional purposes.
“The District understands that students in the Ideal Mini program may attach significance to learning in a smaller academic setting. To preserve this type of environment, the District will collaborate with administrators to locate the program within the Churchill building in a way that maintains the cohesiveness of the learning community.”