Heading back to the school this year will be extra special for Laura Secord Elementary School students who are coming back to a fully seismically upgraded and renewed school.
Secord students and teachers have spent the last two years in portables set up on the school playfield while the main building was gutted, seismically reinforced and restored. This has been a complex project led by the Vancouver School Board in partnership with the Ministry of Education and the City of Vancouver. Vision Vancouver’s school trustees — Patti Bacchus, Ken Clement, Sharon Gregson and Mike Lombardi — have worked hard and successfully to support this and several other major seismic upgrade projects in Vancouver school district.
The Vision/COPE-led school board also successfully advocated for additional provincial funding to ensure the renewed Secord has room for early learning and care programs for pre-school-aged students.
The Vision school trustees are also very pleased to let parents and students know that not only will their beautifully restored school be ready this September, all of the portables have now been removed from the field so students will once again have room to run and play. Parents appealed strongly to trustees last spring to ensure the portables were removed — we heard you and took action.
There’s more good back-to-school news. The fully upgraded and renewed Ecole Jules Quesnel will also be opening this September after being vacated for two-years while it was seismically upgraded. There’s also been excellent progress on school-level emergency preparedness across the district, fulfilling another commitment your Vision school trustees made in the 2008 elections.
Several more major seismic upgrades are in the planning and design phase. Patti, Ken, Sharon and Mike continue to focus on moving projects forward and working to fast track several remaining seismic upgrade project so all Vancouver School Board students can attend seismically safe and schools.
Your Vision school trustees are also very pleased to report the district’s first early Mandarin Bilingual Program is starting this September at Norquay Elementary School. This is a district program open to all VSB students and will begin with Kindergarten and grade-one students.
Your Vision school trustees strongly supported the development of this new program. Parents from across the district worked for several years to advocate for a Mandarin program. The Vision trustees listened to them, worked with them and are delighted to be able to provide this learning opportunity to Vancouver students.
