Underused annex is first school to close following ministry-commissioned report

The Vancouver school board is closing its first school since an external report called for the closure of 19 district schools.

Maquinna Annex on 4th Avenue in East Vancouver will not reopen in the fall, according to a report posted on the VSB website.

Enrolment has been dropping at Chief Maquinna Elementary on East 2nd Avenue and the Maquinna Annex, just a few blocks away. Both schools are in the same catchment area and there has been a 37 per cent drop to 227 students between the two schools this year from 360 students in 2007-08.

Enrolment at the annex school, which serves students in kindergarten through Grade 3, dropped to 34 in early March from 41 last year. And numbers at the annex again fell to 22 at the end of April as a “number of parents (with students) in the upper primary grades chose to transfer their children to the main school.”

After discussing “the educational and social opportunities available at the main school compared to the annex,” the remaining families at the annex also have decided to make the move and by June 2, no students were registered at the annex for the next school year.

The closure comes after an Ernst & Young report commissioned by the Ministry of Education said earlier this month that closing seven elementary annexes, 10 elementary schools and two secondary schools could save $10 million a year in building overhead costs and $27 million annually in support staff salaries.

The report didn’t name schools, but most of the schools with low enrolment are on the city’s east side, where there are more than 9,000 empty seats. For now, no plans have been made for how Maquinna Annex might be used in the future.