On February 10, 2018 the Hudson PAC submitting the following resolution to be considered at the BCCPAC 2018 Annual General Meeting. This is important to Hudson because as it stands now, when a school is rebuilt as a result of seismic upgrades, the Ministry of Education Area Standards do not force it to include space for non-enrolling education (e.g. art or music). Nor do the area standards consider the need for licensed Day Cares.
Title of Resolution: Advocacy for Revision of Area Standards
Type of Resolution: Ordinary
Submitted by: Henry Hudson Elementary PAC, School District #39
Resolution Wording:
Be it resolved that BCCPAC advocate for revisions to the Ministry of Education Area Standards document for the design of all new or rebuilt schools throughout B.C. that would
- require and protect space allocations in elementary schools for non-enrolling classrooms to ensure there is room for essential elements of quality public education such as art, music, science, individualized learning as per the new curriculum and support for students with special needs, and
- require and protect space allocations in elementary schools for licensed out-of-school childcare programs
Be it further resolved that BCCPAC’s advocacy include
- immediately writing a letter to the Ministry of Education asserting that such revisions of the Area Standards document are urgently needed given the current government’s expressed intention to increase the pace of seismic mitigation projects throughout the province,
- participating to the greatest extent possible in any Ministry of Education consultations around such revisions, and
- reporting back on outcomes to the BCCPAC membership.
Proposer’s Position Statement Supporting the Resolution:
The current Ministry of Education Area Standards (http://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/administration/resource-management/capital-planning/areastandards.pdf) are the basis for design of all upgrades and new schools. The current area standards include space allocations for non-enrolling classrooms for middle and secondary schools, but no such allocations for elementary schools. Thus in newly constructed elementary schools or rebuilds for seismic upgrades there is no protection for adequately sized dedicated spaces for a) core programs such as music and art, b) resources such as technology labs, c) individualized learning as envisaged in the new provincial curriculum, or d) resources such as sensory rooms or breakout spaces to support students with special needs.
In addition, childcare before and after mandated school hours is an increasingly necessary service for the growing proportion of families which need two incomes to cover their cost of living. The current area standards include no protected space for such programs. A fine csummary of this issue can be found at https://www.change.org/p/rob-fleming-mla-leg-bc-ca-integrate-out-of-school-care-into-our-schools.
We ask BCCPAC to advocate for revisions to the provincial area standards to address these concerns, which affect children and parents in communities across the province. As one example, our own elementary school has during recent years of rising enrolment seen the transformation of a music room, an art room, a computer lab, the lunch room and the staff lounge into enrolling classrooms, and our out-of-school care program space now shared with a classroom. This same school is in the queue for a seismic upgrade; using the current area standards and serving the same population of students, the new facility envisaged in the Vancouver School Board’s current capital plan submission would be 21% smaller than the original, in which it is difficult to imagine how the spaces already lost to our school can be restored.
Implementers:
Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, Boards of Education
Interested Parties:
BC School Trustees Association, BC Teachers Federation, BC School Superintendents Association, BC Principals and Vice Principals Association, Childcare Licensing authorities