VANCOUVER, B.C. – The Green Party of Vancouver has released their school board platform, ‘A brighter future for our schools’, for the 2018 municipal election.

Students must be the centre of our schools, and our schools are the hearts of our communities. With every decision Vancouver Green School Trustees will ensure that they focus on the best interests of students. We will create a school district that meets every student’s needs, in particular for our most vulnerable students.

We do politics differently. Our core values include collaboration and respect for diversity, and we will strive to seek out the voices of our students, parents and guardians, teachers, support staff, administrators, and the local community. We will take a broad and long-sighted view of public education in Vancouver to provide excellence in learning, build respectful relationships, advocate for our students, support local communities, and ensure good stewardship of our school district. By aligning our decisions and actions to the Six Core Green Principles, we will work to create the best possible education system to enable our students to succeed in a rapidly changing world.

Highlights of the Green Party school board platform include:

• Explore all opportunities to work with daycare providers, other levels of government, and partner agencies to expand childcare spaces at school sites, especially for before and after school care.
• Support use of school spaces outside school hours by neighbourhood organizations and the community, for example by working closely with the park board or through online bookings for school spaces and fields.
• Support wellness and mental health initiatives for all students, teachers, support staff, and administrators and in particular address the increase in stress and anxiety experienced by many students.
• Support access to food programs for vulnerable students as any hungry student will struggle to learn. In April 2018 the board asked staff to report on the steps to be taken and costs associated with a district wide plan to address food security and healthy eating through food programmes in all our schools. Green Trustees will take action on this report, so that no child goes hungry and every child eats healthy.
• Improve two-way communication with local First Nations - Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh - and urban Indigenous Peoples by learning protocol and working more closely with councils and community organizations.
• Explore ways to strengthen the connection students have with growing, preparing, and eating food, for example by supporting school gardens and food-related community partnerships such as Think & Eat Green. Most schools already have space set aside for garden plots; Green Trustees will support the ongoing efforts of planting and maintaining these spaces.

Quotes:

Lois Chan-Pedley, IT consultant and candidate for school board, “The decisions that we make today will have an impact on children for generations. One in five children in BC live in poverty and many of them live in Vancouver. I'm running to ensure that kids have access to the resources they need to flourish.”

Janet Fraser, current school board chair and incumbent trustee, “Our schools are the hearts of our communities. Green trustees want every Vancouver family to have confidence that their neighbourhood school is an excellent place for their child to learn and excel. As Chair I have worked to renew relationships in the Vancouver school district and I look forward to continuing this important work.”

Estrellita Gonzalez, small business owner and incumbent trustee, “The student population in the Vancouver school district is declining every year despite the number of new condos and homes being built. Retaining families and students in our district will require innovative solutions and forward-thinking people.”

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More information:

A brighter future for our schools, Green Party of Vancouver School Board Platform

Media contact

Alex Brunke, Press Secretary

+1 778-938-2378 | [email protected]