The Vancouver School Board’s Facilities Planning Committee met on the evening of Wednesday, January 18, 2023. Watch the full meeting or view the agenda for details.

The first item on the meeting agenda was an update about projects supported by the Ministry outlined in the capital plan response letter. On March 9, 2023, the Vancouver Board of Education (VBE) received the Capital Plan Response Letter from the Capital Management Branch of the Ministry of Education and Child Care in response to funding requests prioritized in the District’s 2023/24 Five-Year Capital Plan submission, submitted last July.  The 6-classroom addition to Henry Hudson Elementary School is a new major capital project that is supported by the Ministry to move to the feasibility phase of the approval process. Two other supported projects also in the planning phase of the approval process are the new school at Olympic Village, and a seismic mitigation project for Grenfell Elementary. None of these major capital projects have been approved for capital funding from the Ministry. The response letter also detailed minor capital projects approved for funding. Full details can be found in item 1.1 of the agenda package. 

Staff then presented the engagement findings from the QEA surplus consideration engagement process. In February and March, the District engaged with stakeholders, the three host Nations, neighbourhood associations, impacted government agencies and school communities in the vicinity of the QEA site. The engagement process consisted of several components including:

• Focused discussion with rightsholders 
• A stakeholder engagement workshop 
• Two virtual information sessions 
• An online survey 
• Email feedback  
• Based on feedback from the community, the District also added a special delegation meeting for the Board to specifically hear about the QEA land surplus declaration consideration from the public. The delegation was scheduled on April 5, 2023.

Full details of the engagement results can be found in the staff report, posted on the District’s website. The Board will make its decision about the surplus consideration at a public Board meeting on April 11, 2023. 

The next meeting of the Facilities Planning Committee will take place on May 17, 2023.

Keep up to date with the District’s committee and Board meetings; see the calendar for meeting dates, agendas and livestream links. All recordings of meetings are housed on the District’s YouTube channel. Minutes from committee and Board meetings are also posted online.