Schools to become hubs; Vancouver school board wants to add daycares
The Province
September 4, 2008
By: John Bermingham

The B.C. government has launched a $30-million pilot project that will see five schools undergo renovations to offer additional services.

Vancouver's Queen Mary, General Gordon and Lord Strathcona elementaries will be renovated to include the new services, along with two schools in the B.C. Interior that have not yet been announced.

Queen Mary and General Gordon are in Premier Gordon Campbell's Point Grey riding.

One idea is for four-year-olds, even three-year-olds, to attend kindergarten.

Two others are for adult theatre groups and sports clubs to use school facilities in the evening, or put community gardens on school grounds.

Vancouver School Board chairman Clarence Hansen said the money will be used to make seismic upgrades, preserve heritage and expand facilities.

….Hansen will look at bringing daycare into schools, to ease the city's daycare crunch.

"If we could have funding for daycare come into our schools, to help create space for these people, then I think it's a win-win situation for everybody."

Irene Lanzinger, president of the B.C. Teachers Federation, said 177 schools have closed since the Liberals took power.

"Where's their centre of learning? It's gone, because the [school] boards didn't have the money to keep those schools open."

NDP Leader Carole James said the Liberals axed community schools back in 2002 and are now looking at the idea again.