After months of consultations, and even more of provincial government and school board bickering, the Vancouver School Board’s Vision Vancouver trustees have announced their decision against any school closures in the district.

“We heard very clearly from our community, our parents, our students, that school closures are not the answer to the financial challenges that we’re currently facing,” Patti Bacchus, chair of the Vancouver School Board (VSB), told the media during a press conference earlier today. Vision councillors Ken Clement and Mike Lombardi were also in attendance, but Sharon Gregson was not because of conflict of interest with her employer.

“We have listened very hard, we considered the feedback, and we will be going forward voting not to close those schools.”

The board needs to cut over $17 million from its budget and was considering the closure of five schools in the city’s east end: Carleton Elementary, Champlain Heights Annex, MacDonald Elementary, McBride Annex, and Queen Alexandra Elementary. Today’s announcement coincided with the release of the VSB Superintendent Steve Cardwell's report on the closure, which recommended no school closures in addition to a moratorium on closures in the district until 2012.

Bacchus was quick to add, however, that school closures may have to be considered again as early as this spring in anticipation of a further $10 million in cuts required to balance the budget. They also stressed funding may have to be cut from other areas, including school programs, saying they stressed this during community consultations on school closures.

The Vision trustees do agree, however, with the superintendent’s recommendations to work with the City of Vancouver and other service providers to utilize school space for community programs such as childcare initiatives, which they are considering offering at no cost to the provider.

The Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid has indicated school closures are necessary because of a declining school-age population, but the Vision trustees countered that the population is forecast to increase, especially once the government’s pre-kindergarten program for three- and four-year olds is introduced.

“If we close the space down now, we’re in a position of having to open it again in a couple of years. We could actually be financially further behind than if we close now,” says Bacchus.

This recommendation is not set in stone, however, and neither today’s the views of the Vision trustees nor the superintendent’s report necessarily match the views of the other members of the VSB. A final vote on the superintendent’s recommendations will happen December 14.