Did you know there is a wonderful little school in our neighbourhood?It is the Primary School Building at the corner of Nootka and East Georgia Streets, which is part of Dr. A. R. Lord Elementary School, welcoming children from Kindergarten to grade seven.
The primary school is a beautiful one-level, fully wheelchair-accessible building, on the lower grounds, dedicated to the teaching and nurturing of our smallest students, from Kindergarten to grade 2. It has specially designed rooms for the little ones, from classrooms to bathrooms, an indoor playroom for when it rains and a large, bright activity room which is also used as the lunchroom for the entire school, including grades 4 to 7, who attend classes in the upper two-level building. We have a fully-equipped resource classroom to facilitate sessions for children with special learning challenges. The upper building has classrooms for the older children, and also contains the gymnasium with a theatre stage. You may have been in it, as it is our local voting station for provincial and federal elections!
Unfortunately, there appears to be a plan in the works to close the lower building, supposedly to save a few thousand dollars. But at what cost? The financial cost of upheaval, retrofitting, moving all the classroom contents, the chance we may lose potential students because other schools are now more attractive to parents and the stress to the little ones being in a building designed for the older ones. The primary building was the original school opened at this location and the upper building was constructed to accommodate the older children, when attendance grew. Granted, these past couple of years, attendance has been lower. However, we all know, we all can see that the neighbourhood is blossoming, families are building, buying, expanding. Enrollment will increase; Kindergarten sign up for September has doubled from last year! Would the building be maintained or left abandoned and rundown? Will it invite ne'er-do-wells' to throw stones through its windows, spray paint its walls or leave trash laying around? Do we want our little gem of a school, the beautiful grounds, our neighbourhood softball, picnic and play park to be neglected and forgotten in the midst of our thriving, growing community?
We must get the message out, we want to save our primary building, and we want to expand its capabilities and uses. Currently it is used for community-focused after school programs, R.E.A.L. meetings, Chinese language classes, multicultural group meetings and education, Mother Goose sessions, as well as a multitude of regular school programs and activities. Potential uses could include before and after-school care, for which there is a high demand, as well as daycare, adult education and E.S.L. classes. Our activity room uses include music and gym classes for the primary group, Mother's Day and pancake breakfasts, school-driven fundraiser picnics as well as all-grades lunch break. Without this room, the only space available for lunch would be the gymnasium, and then there would be no room for noontime sports activities and inter-mural games, which would be a terrible loss for all students and the teachers involved.
Please write and email letters to all the officials listed below. Let them know we want to save this precious asset for our present and future students and that the “proposed cutbacks" are not acceptable for our elementary school. Growing Minds ~ Growing Hearts, what we are achieving and protecting. If we lose this valuable part of our neighbourhood, we may never retrieve it. As a group, let us do all we can to save our primary building, our beautiful school with its wonderful teachers, awesome support staff and community spirit.
Officials to Contact
Margaret MacDiarmid, the Minister of Education
104 – 1245 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC , V6H 1G7
(604) 660 – 7061
minister.educ@gov.bc.ca
Gordon Campbell, Premier
Gordon.campbell.mla@leg.bc.ca
Shane Simpson, MLA for Hastings Sunrise constituency
shane.simpson.mla@leg.bc.ca
Vancouver School Board of Trustees
Jane Bouey - jane.bouey@vsb.bc.ca (Dr. A.R. Lord Elementary representative)
Patti Bacchus - patti.bacchus@vsb.bc.ca (VSB Chair)
Ken Denike - ken.denike@vsb.bc.ca
Sharon Gregson - sharon.gregson@vsb.bc.ca
Mike Lombardi - mike.lombardi@vsb.bc.ca
Carol Gibson - carol.gibson@vsb.bc.ca
Allen Blakey - allen.blakey@vsb.bc.ca
Ken Clement - ken.clement@vsb.bc.ca
Allan Wong - allan.wong@vsb.bc.ca
