Less than a month after securing a new location for its Main Street Adult Education Centre in Gladstone Secondary, the Vancouver School Board is considering closing an adult education centre at Lord Roberts Elementary.

The agenda for the board's Committee II meeting tonight includes two items addressing the possible closure of the Roberts Adult Education Centre at the downtown elementary school because of "unprecedented growth" in the elementary student population.

In recent years, Lord Roberts Elementary has been the "home overflow" school for families whose children didn't get into kindergarten at Elsie Roy Elementary. But the population of school-aged children has increased to the point that Lord Roberts Annex is full and Lord Roberts Elementary will be too in 2015/2016.

Two adult ed classrooms were closed in the 2013-2014 school year to accommodate Lord Roberts' increasing elementary population. Now the district management team is recommending the board amalgamate Roberts Adult Education Centre with four other adult ed centres in the city, ranging in transit times from the West End from 16 to 46 minutes.

"The classrooms currently used by Adult Education at Lord Roberts are the only remaining student spaces available in the downtown core," reads a letter from the district team to Committee II posted on the district website.

"By maximizing enrolments in fewer centres, a more economically viable Adult Education program may be offered... With the Roberts student population being accommodated in the surrounding programs, students may find more course options available to them than were previously provided at Roberts."

The Vancouver Elementary School Teachers' Association (VESTA), which represents adult education teachers, is also presenting to Committee II tonight. In a letter also posted on the board's website, the association recommends the closure of two adult ed classes at Lord Roberts, and asks when classroom closures will happen, and how adult ed needs in the West End would be served without the Roberts Adult Education Centre.

"It is exciting and good for the city to have families moving into Vancouver's downtown area," reads the letter.

"It is VESTA's hope, however, that the board's decisions about programming, specifically Adult Education programming, are neither short-sighted nor based solely on current demographics."

Vancouver School Board chair Patti Bacchus says it's a difficult decision for trustees, adding she is concerned the necessity of using transit to get to other education centres may prevent some of the several hundred Roberts Adult Education Centre students from enrolling.

"There are other downtown sites, but not in the West End," she said, referring to the Downtown East Education Centre and Gathering Place Education Centre. "But those are very small sites and not necessarily the same kind of programming that's available at Roberts."

But Kindergarten to Grade 12 students are the district's first priority. Student enrollment is projected to increase province wide in the coming years, possibly putting pressure on other adult ed centres in the future. Bacchus says the district still has several underused facilities, which provide flexibility for moving adult ed centres to other areas.

"We still have space. It's not always where we want it to be, and that's what we're finding is our challenge," she said, adding flexible space is one of the benefits of not closing underused schools in the district.

The Roberts Adult Education Centre was used as a positive example of hosting an adult ed centre in a public school after parents and students protested the proposed move of the Main Street Adult Education Centre into unused space at Gladstone Secondary.

Concerns were raised about having adults students and parents didn't know in the school. But the Vancouver School Board approved the move in March, saying it would save the district $600,000 a year in rent.

If Committee II approves the closure of some or all of the Roberts Adult Education Centre, the decision will be moved to the school board level.

Katie Hyslop reports on education and youth issues for The Tyee Solutions Society. Follow her on Twitter.