Schools, students, facilities, and education governance
183 commitments from 10 parties, grouped by who published them.
Green Party of Vancouver 99
- Work with other school districts, education partners, unions, parents, and community organizations to advocate for a stable, multi-year provincial funding model that reflects inflation and the real cost of delivering public education in Vancouver.↗↗
- Publish clear estimates showing the gap between available provincial funding and the cost of maintaining existing school services.↗↗
- Advocate for stronger targeted provincial funding for inclusive education, student mental health, food programs, and other areas of growing student need.↗
- Make the impact of funding shortfalls clear to educators, parents, and the public during budget consultations.↗
- Request that the Province provide predictable capital funding so school upgrades and renewals can be planned over the long term rather than on a per-project basis.↗↗
- Seek creative additional capital and operational funding sources, including grants, partnerships, donations, and activating capital assets, provided they do not compromise universal access or public accountability.↗↗
- Advocate to the Ministry to ensure new schools have adequate space and are designed to be climate-resilient, particularly as climate impacts worsen.↗
- Advocate for increased provincial funding for students with diverse learning needs, noting the current Ministry allocation supplemented by VSB is inadequate.↗
- Seek a provincial commitment to fund Living Wage for all BC school district employees and contracts.↗↗
- Maintain strong financial oversight and independent auditing of school board finances.↗
- Make audited school financial information easier for the public to understand.↗
- Track major school board initiatives against clear objectives and strengthen long-term asset-management planning.↗
- Use evidence to identify school programs that should be expanded, improved, or discontinued.↗
- Protect public school property for long-term educational and community benefit.↗
- Improve reporting on implementation so that announcements are followed by measurable results.↗
- Regularly review Board policies for relevance, effectiveness, and accessibility.↗
- Put student learning and frontline supports at the centre of budget decisions and protect targeted funding for the students and services it is intended to support.↗
- Publish school budgets in clear, accessible language with explanations when programs are expanded, reduced, or changed.↗↗
- Conduct a review of middle and upper management school board salaries.↗↗
- Improve long-term forecasting for enrolment, staffing, facilities, and other major cost pressures.↗
- Track whether major school spending decisions are producing the outcomes trustees were told to expect.↗↗
- Avoid short-term financial decisions that create larger costs or service gaps in the future.↗
- Prioritize teachers, educational assistants, counsellors, support workers, and other student-facing positions when making school budget decisions.↗↗
- Advocate for provincial funding that reflects the actual cost of adequate school staffing.↗
- Develop multi-year staffing plans to anticipate enrolment changes, retirement pressures, and hard-to-fill positions.↗↗
- Strengthen recruitment partnerships with universities, colleges, and training institutions to support school staffing.↗↗
- Ensure educators are provided with a variety of professional development opportunities, mentorship, and career pathways to retain experienced staff and attract new staff.↗
- Maintain a robust teacher and support staff on-call list so that classroom absences are fully covered.↗
- Work constructively and regularly with employee groups to identify recruitment, retention, workload, and workplace-safety challenges before they become crises.↗
- Review school-related fees and costs to identify barriers that prevent students from fully participating.↗↗
- Strengthen awareness and accessibility of financial-hardship policies for students.↗↗
- Prioritize adequate supports for students with diverse learning needs and assess decisions that led to reductions in vice-principals, music teachers, and librarians.↗↗
- Advocate for provincial funding that reflects the real cost of inclusive education.↗
- Strengthen access to educational assistants and other support staff based on student need.↗
- Improve accessibility of school facilities, programs, communications, and learning materials.↗↗
- Expand access to nutritious school food programs.↗↗
- Advocate for stable provincial and federal funding for school food programs.↗↗
- Reduce avoidable food waste through food recovery and composting in schools.↗↗
- Advocate for more school-based mental-health resources, including counsellors and appropriate support staff, to improve pathways for students and families seeking support.↗↗
- Continue support for SOGI123 and ensure students of all sexual orientations and gender identities feel safe, supported, and welcomed in Vancouver schools.↗↗
- Continue implementation of the Accessibility Act, supporting the Accessibility Plan, Accessibility Committee, and acting on feedback received.↗↗
- Support English language learners, Multicultural Liaison, and Settlement Workers in Schools (SWIS) and family support programs through advocacy to all levels of government, and ensure the district works collaboratively to support new immigrant and refugee families.↗
- Expand opportunities for climate and sustainability learning consistent with provincial curriculum requirements.↗↗
- Partner with trades organisations and expand skilled-trades opportunities and connections to apprenticeship programs for students.↗
- Build stronger pathways into careers in clean energy, construction, electrification, and other key sectors, and expose students to a wider range of career options.↗↗
- Support preschool programs such as Strong Start, Ready Set Learn, and Welcome to Kindergarten, as well as adult education, to provide a continuum of lifelong learning.↗
- Seek student input, especially from underrepresented communities, before major decisions affecting school experience, facilities, or programs.↗↗
- Expand opportunities for students to speak directly to the Board on policies affecting them.↗↗
- Keep seismic safety at the top of Vancouver's capital priorities, noting that 43 of 106 VSB buildings remain seismically high-risk at an estimated $1.63 billion.↗↗
- Advocate for provincial approval and funding of outstanding seismic upgrade projects.↗
- Ensure accessibility improvements are delivered alongside major school renewals.↗
- Improve long-term public reporting on the condition of school facilities.↗
- Coordinate capital planning with expected neighbourhood growth and enrolment changes, prioritising King George Secondary (at 166% capacity) and Carr Elementary (over capacity and using portables).↗
- Work with the City and Province to ensure new neighbourhood growth is matched with sufficient school capacity.↗
- Prepare schools for extreme heat, wildfire smoke, flooding, power outages, and other risks.↗↗
- Reduce energy use and emissions from VSB buildings where technically and financially feasible.↗
- Incorporate naturalised areas, water retention, shade, and biodiversity into school-ground planning.↗
- Pursue dedicated provincial capital funding for adaptation and energy-efficiency upgrades, including heat pumps and ventilation, during facility renewal.↗
- Prioritise the most vulnerable schools when allocating limited retrofit resources, including those most at risk from extreme heat requiring cooling and improved air quality.↗
- Create a shade inventory for key schools and use it to prioritise tree planting; develop Miyawaki pilots to accelerate forest growth in partnership with the Parks Board.↗↗
- Ensure sufficient emergency planning is established by the City of Vancouver, health authorities, surrounding community facilities, and other partners.↗
- Request a pause on the use of AI chatbots in schools to enable proper consultation with students, parents, and educators, and conduct a full review of policy and procedures including ethics and cognitive impacts.↗↗
- Evaluate the role and structure of any school liaison or police partnership based on student safety, evidence, community input, and the educational mandate of the Board.↗
- Identify schools and sites where additional childcare capacity can be accommodated.↗↗↗
- Expand appropriate community use of gyms, fields, libraries, kitchens, and other school spaces outside instructional hours.↗↗
- Review barriers that prevent community organizations from accessing suitable school facilities.↗
- Build stronger partnerships with neighbourhood houses, arts organizations, recreation providers, and nonprofits for shared school space use.↗
- Explore joint-use agreements with the City, Park Board, and other public bodies for school facilities.↗
- Improve public information about which school facilities are available for community use.↗
- Work with Vancouver City Council and Park Board to improve walking, rolling, and cycling connections to schools.↗↗
- Advocate for traffic-calming measures around schools where warranted.↗
- Improve secure bicycle and mobility-device parking on school sites where feasible.↗
- Coordinate school-site improvements with the City's transportation network to address dangerous intersections, missing sidewalks, unsafe crossings, and cycling-network gaps affecting students.↗
- Expand partnerships with post-secondary institutions and employers to increase student opportunities.↗
- Work with arts and recreation organizations to increase student opportunities.↗
- Strengthen connections between schools and community-based health and social services.↗
- Coordinate more closely with elected representatives on City Council and Park Board on cross-jurisdictional issues, and invite City Council to meet with the school board to discuss common issues.↗↗
- Strengthen meaningful consultation with students before major decisions affecting their education or school experience.↗↗
- Improve engagement with parents and caregivers.↗
- Respect and strengthen the role of Parent Advisory Councils and the District Parent Advisory Council.↗
- Create predictable opportunities for employee groups to raise systemic issues with trustees.↗
- Listen earlier when staffing, workload, safety, or implementation problems emerge.↗
- Encourage collaborative working groups where district-wide operational problems can be addressed constructively.↗
- Improve transparency around non-confidential workforce trends such as vacancies, recruitment, and retention.↗
- Align City land-use decisions with Vancouver School Board needs and projections.↗
- Explore expanded equipment lending programs for activity gear to reduce financial barriers to student participation.↗
- Make arts, trades, and enrichment opportunities available to students regardless of income.↗
- Address a five-year decline in literacy and numeracy outcomes, with particular focus on Grade 10.↗
- Support school gardens as a hands-on food literacy initiative.↗
- Support English language learners, Multicultural Liaisons, and Settlement Workers in Schools.↗
- Continue pursuing provincial capital funding to make climate-ready school upgrades possible.↗
- Expand student access to leadership, arts, athletics, and enrichment extracurricular activities on an equitable basis.↗
- Make Board decisions and reporting easier for the public to understand.↗
- Embed reconciliation commitments — including relationships with the Nations — into measurable, publicly reported action within the School Board.↗
- Monitor implementation of the Education Plan using system data and qualitative feedback to assess student success improvements and identify and rectify achievement gaps.↗
- Monitor the current Seamless Day child care pilot and push the provincial Ministry of Education and Child Care to provide additional support and funding aligned with the Ministry's mandate.↗
- Call for implementation of comprehensive SLO training and the development, communication, and enforcement of clear SLO expectations and responsibilities, including civilian oversight as recommended by BC's all-party police reform committee.↗
- Build on existing collaborative efforts to advance the Food Framework Vision and find creative ways to introduce food systems into all Vancouver schools, including nutrition education.↗
- Urge Vancouver MLAs to advocate for transparent reinvestment of Additional School Tax revenue into Vancouver public schools.↗
TEAM for a Livable Vancouver 19
- Expand evidence-based drug-prevention education in public schools, with clear warnings about the risks of illicit drugs, addiction, overdose, and long-term consequences of substance use.↗
- Work with the Province to locate K–12 schools within walking distance of students to reduce car trips.↗
- Redirect financial resources from school administration to classrooms, with programs that prioritize student learning outcomes across the academic spectrum.↗
- Ensure existing neighbourhood schools remain open and prioritize new school construction in under-served communities.↗
- Work with the City to end school enrolment lotteries through long-range planning that places schools where students need them.↗
- Demand the province fund seismic upgrades for four annexes, twenty-eight elementary schools, and eleven secondary schools that remain at high risk in a seismic event.↗
- Coordinate with the Park Board to enhance school fields and green spaces for use by both host schools and the broader community.↗
- Provide an integrated swimming and lifeguard training program so that 100% of Vancouver students can learn to swim, in cooperation with qualified agencies, and expand access to community-based pools through cooperation between community centres and schools targeting early learning for young children.↗↗
- Incorporate childcare into school sites with a long-range view of implementing an early education preschool program for all 3- and 4-year-olds, in keeping with Ministry of Education plans.↗
- Include music programming at every elementary school, restoring Elementary Band and Strings programs.↗
- Increase focus on alternative, applied skills, and dual credit programs to provide pathways for students across the academic spectrum.↗
- Prioritize keeping siblings from one family together in the same school.↗
- Work with the District Parent Advisory Council on neighbourhood school planning.↗
- Pause the rollout of Microsoft Copilot for students 13 and older in secondary schools until research demonstrates benefits outweigh risks and students, families, and educators have been meaningfully consulted.↗↗
- Ensure City growth planning does not outpace school capacity, and prioritize new schools in newly developed neighbourhoods, citing Olympic Village as an example that has waited nearly two decades.↗
- Stop disposing of school land and commit to retaining ownership of school buildings and property for future population growth, using underutilized space for community uses such as childcare, seniors care, or community programs.↗
- Take action by any means possible to reverse the leasing of Fleming's field and the closure of Carleton.↗
- Negotiate with the province to direct more Vancouver school tax revenue to local Vancouver schools rather than provincial general revenue.↗
- Examine whether senior management expansion is justified relative to direct classroom spending.↗
COPE 15
- No cuts to VSB programming, no school closures, and no sale of public school land.↗
- Keep AI out of Vancouver schools by signing onto the PACES (Parents for AI Caution in Educational Spaces) pledge.↗
- Bring a motion to the School Board to stop the elimination of the district-wide librarian mentor teaching position (1.0 FTE District Teacher Librarian) for the 2026–2027 school year.↗
- Bring a motion to the School Board to increase additional hours for supervision aides for the 2026–2027 school year.↗
- Bring a motion to the School Board to reinstate 3.0 FTE SSB staffing for the 2026–2027 school year.↗
- Bring a motion to the School Board to require Teachers Teaching on Call to cover resource teacher absences from day one, rather than day two.↗
- Bring a motion to the School Board to reinstate 1.0 FTE Teacher of the Visually Impaired and 1.0 FTE Hospital Homebound Teacher for the 2026–2027 school year.↗
- Bring a motion to the School Board to fully designate the City of Vancouver food grant for school meals for the 2026–2027 school year, restoring over $160,000 in meal funding.↗
- Bring a motion to the School Board calling for consideration of reallocating administrative and managerial office budgets to support resource teachers and inclusive education.↗
- Mandate renewable energy sources on all new VSB builds and major renovations.↗↗
- Properly fund inclusive education for students with diverse learning needs.↗↗
- Facilitate Indigenous educational practices within VSB school programming.↗↗
- Ensure no child is hungry by establishing a universal breakfast and lunch program at Vancouver School Board.↗↗↗
- Fund school mental health counsellors instead of school liaison officers to prioritize student safety and well-being.↗
- Adopt recommendations from the BC Human Rights Commission to respond to and fight racism in VSB schools.↗↗
OneCity Vancouver 14
- Keep the Kingsgate Mall land in public ownership and redevelop the site into a community commons including a new public school, community centre, licensed public/non-profit/Indigenous childcare (including before- and after-school care), affordable and subsidized rental housing, and a pool for Mount Pleasant, in partnership with Host Nations and the OneCity Park Board and Council teams.↗↗↗↗
- Expand school-based mental health and substance use services, strengthen prevention and early-intervention programs, and improve partnerships with families, health providers, and community organizations through a district-wide strategy.↗↗↗↗↗
- Adopt a learner-centred harm-reduction approach to AI in schools, including new safeguards, AI literacy education, privacy protections, age-appropriate access limits, and restriction of AI chatbot access to Grades 10–12 only, while ensuring human relationships and supervision are available at all times.↗↗↗↗↗
- Enact a plan with City Council, Park Board, and other public and community partners to rebuild the entire 18-acre Britannia site as an integrated public campus including rebuilt elementary and secondary schools, public childcare, a new community centre and ice rink, food security and social development programs, and non-profit permanently affordable housing.↗↗↗↗↗
- Place neighbourhood schools at the centre of a coordinated public and non-profit childcare system, with VSB-led pilots and planning.↗↗↗↗
- Build a universal, nutritious school food program so that every VSB student can access healthy food during the school day, regardless of financial background.↗↗↗↗
- Integrate school planning with neighbourhood growth, protect school lands for future generations, and keep school grounds available for responsible public use outside school hours.↗↗↗↗↗
- Reverse recent cuts to arts, music, physical education, and school libraries, and establish minimum service standards to protect these programs as core to public education.↗↗↗↗
- Target provincial advocacy to improve staffing, funding allocation, and professional development for educators supporting students with disabilities.↗↗↗↗↗
- Keep Kingsgate Mall and Britannia in public hands and rebuild them as community hubs with new schools, public childcare, a Mount Pleasant pool, and affordable housing.↗↗
- Bring a motion to the Vancouver School Board to study what it would take for the VSB to run its own before and after school care programs in public schools, with $50,000 allocated toward establishing Out of School Care.↗↗
- Ask the school board to take initiative in delivering childcare, including before- and after-school care, by leveraging existing infrastructure of over 100 school sites across the district and existing, qualified VSB staff.↗↗↗
- Continue to fight to keep school lands in public hands rather than leased to private entities.↗
- Protect curriculum diversity and ensure inclusive education in schools.↗
Vancouver Liberals 14
- Advocate for recreational spaces and programming that encourage positive health outcomes for students.↗
- Prioritise the 43 remaining high-seismic-risk schools at the top of the School Board capital plan and campaign for the Province to fund them on a firm timeline.↗
- Fight to secure provincial funding to build the replacement for King George Secondary and prioritise expansion for the next most overcrowded schools.↗
- Work with the City and developers to secure new schools and additions in conjunction with new housing development in growing neighbourhoods.↗
- Protect school catchments and rule out a return to mass school closures, while working with the Province on funding and the City on housing growth to keep schools open.↗
- Open before- and after-school childcare at every school site that can host it, and attach a childcare plan to every seismic rebuild.↗
- Retain school district land for schools, childcare, playing fields, and public partners rather than transferring it to private interests.↗
- Enforce strong protections against racism, bullying, and discrimination in every school, and support inclusion measures for students facing barriers.↗
- Make school counsellors and student wellbeing a top budget priority and press the Province for funding to reach more schools.↗
- Protect special-needs, inclusion, and learning supports from cuts when the School Board sets its budget.↗
- Grow and protect school meal and nutrition programs in partnership with the Province and community partners.↗
- Retain the reformed School Liaison Officer program in Vancouver schools.↗↗
- Set district guidelines for AI in classrooms aligned with the Province and BC Teachers' Federation, including age-appropriate chatbot limits, privacy and data protection standards, teacher training before deployment, and prior consultation with parents and teachers before any expansion.↗
- Press the Province for stable, adequate, and predictable funding for Vancouver schools.↗
Vote Vancouver 11
- Work to create more opportunities for school spaces to serve their communities beyond the school day.↗
- Expand school programs to include pre-kindergarten childcare during school days in Vancouver School Board facilities.↗
- Advocate for better provincial funding for more school counsellors and early childhood supports, including faster access to neurodivergence assessments.↗
- Work with the VSB to expand school nutrition programs and reduce funding gaps between schools, incorporating food literacy, culinary education, and school/community gardens, and developing sustainable cost-sharing rather than relying on municipal budgets, individual schools, or non-profits.↗
- Review the Nutritional Standards Guide to ensure it provides appropriate nourishment for learning.↗
- Protect core arts, music, physical education, and enrichment programs from budget cuts.↗
- Establish School Liaison Officers focused on early intervention and youth protection, operating out of uniform with independent equity-centred reviews, and paired with expanded counsellors, youth workers, and restorative justice programs.↗
- Address staffing gaps in schools where funding exists but dedicated resource teacher assistance is insufficient.↗
- Ensure the Vancouver School Board provides equity-lensed opportunities for all students to be represented through student council initiatives.↗
- Conduct an inventory audit of elementary school grounds to evaluate current restrictions and upgrade needs; ensure seismic renewal keeps pace with requirements; carefully evaluate repair vs. rebuild costs without liquidating public assets; advocate for acceleration of the Olympic Village School development with community consultation on storey options; and partner with the City and Park Board to improve facilities in high-density and underserved neighbourhoods.↗
- Create new classroom technology guidelines requiring mandatory consultation before new AI tools are implemented, providing clear teacher guidance on acceptable AI use (excluding direct instructional delivery), and restricting cellphones in elementary and younger grades.↗
TrueBlue Vancouver 6
- Focus school mental health resources on practical counselling and student wellbeing while keeping parents informed and involved.↗
- Enforce strong, uniformly applied rules against bullying, threats, and harassment for all students.↗
- Teach students to question sources, examine evidence, recognize misinformation, and debate viewpoints respectfully, with public progress reporting and adjustment when evidence shows the approach is not producing intended results.↗
- Provide practical classroom supports and learning accommodations based on each student's individual educational needs, with public progress reporting and adjustment when evidence shows the approach is not producing intended results.↗
- Support police liaison programs in Vancouver schools to improve safety, build relationships, and respond to violence, gangs, weapons, and serious threats, coordinating enforcement with appropriate community services.↗
- Give students meaningful opportunities to provide input on school issues while keeping elected trustees accountable to parents and voters.↗
Bright Future Vancouver 1
- Ensure City Hall removes permit, approval, fee, inspection, road-access, utilities, and land-use coordination delays affecting school projects rather than adding to them.↗
Christopher JK Richardson 1
- Advocate for timely assessments, appropriate learning supports, and meaningful collaboration with students, families, and educators for learners with disabilities or diverse abilities.↗