************Op-Ed: Selling Our Children’s Future: How the VSB’s Land Lease Betrays Vancouver’s Next GenerationBy Heman Mehta, Chair of the Sir Sandford Fleming Elementary Parent Advisory CouncilAbove: Some school communities have been fighting for years to keep school land for community use and stop liquidation and leasing of school land. Once school land is gone, it’s gone for good—and with the city’s population growing, we cannot afford to lose critical educational spaces. Excerpts: Parents are raising alarm about the VSB’s decision to lease a large portion of Fleming Elementary School’s play area to a developer for 99 years. Part of the Fleming Elementary School property in East Van slated for mixed-use commercial and rental (Akshay Kulkarni, CBC News) (28-Sep-2024). Fleming Elementary, located in the Vancouver-Kensington riding, is at the heart of growing concerns about overcrowding and the leasing of essential school land.

Source: CBC News October 20, 2024 07:57 UTC