The Vancouver Public School board has placed a moratorium on school closures until 2012, and will instead develop a plan to revitalize schools as centres of community. The Dec. 14 decision follows a three-month public consultation on proposed school closures.

In a report to the trustees, senior administrative staff noted:

“Throughout the school closure consultation process, the Board of Education heard that the public wanted to hear about options other than school closure. There were calls for expanding affordable childcare and for re-thinking the use of our facilities, their future and centrality to the community…After careful consideration of all of the information received to date and through the public consultation process, senior staff believe that more needs to be done to vitalize Vancouver public schools as central elements of our neighbourhoods and communities.”

Each school that had been threatened with closure will instead be given a special programming focus to help boost enrolment.

Read more: http://www.vsb.bc.ca/school-closures