The UNA board of Directors received a letter from AVP Campus Planning, Michael White, in their July 19th meeting package (page 90). In the letter White explains what UBC has done, what it can’t do, and what it is trying to do. Long and short of it, the UNA area will remain underserved by daycare and public school spaces for some time to come.
Forty to Fifty years ago UBC’s residential neighbourhoods were served by a group of parent run / parent participation daycares, one low enrolling elementary school, and a small high school. UBC didn’t have any direct involvement in most of the residential areas then. What had been initially developed by UBC (the University Endowment Lands) was, and remains, managed by the provincial government. UBC had a small enclave of student family housing, some faculty/staff housing, but mostly single student residencies targeted to the 18-25 year crowd.
Starting in the mid 1980s under the presidency of David Strangway and guided by the CEO of UBC’s real estate development company, Al Poettcker, UBC began a massive residential development plan that has brought thousands of extra people onto campus.
The first new campus community, Hampton Place, was envisioned by planners as being peopled by empty nesters looking to downsize. By the time build out was complete in 1989 an entire elementary school population of children lived in Hampton Place. This was compounded by the construction of Hawthorn Place starting in 2001. Though Hawthorn was planned for an occupation rate of about 1.8 people per residential unit, it was ultimately double that number.
The once nearly empty University Hill Elementary was over flowing by the late 1990s. Many children found themselves dispatched to Queen Mary or Queen Elisabeth Schools, more than five kilometres away from their homes. There was no space for these children in the neighbourhood school. It wasn’t just a problem for elementary students. The small high school, originally built for 350 students, was overcrowded with an enrolment of more than 500 students and was growing bigger every year.
By 2008 a strong community campaign was underway to rebuild the schools, led by the U.Hill Elementary and Secondary School Parent Advisory Councils, high school students, and supported by the UNA. The UNA had even set up an ad hoc Schools Action Committee and was actively campaigning for expanding school capacity.
A rebuilt high school eventually opened in 2013 on 16th & Ross Drive. A new school, Norma Rose Point School, opened shortly thereafter on the former high school property. High school capacity increased to 1100 students. Elementary increased by 800.
Daycare expansion is under the control of the university. The parent run daycares of the 1960s and 1970s were taken over by UBC in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Today a couple of daycares are managed collaboratively by the UNA and UBC (contracted out to service providers). The majority of daycares are run through UBC’s housing and conference services. There has been a modest expansion of daycare services on campus. However, the rate of expansion has never matched the demand from either the university or residential communities.
UBC consistently lets the community know the university has reserved a plot of land for a third elementary school in the UNA area. They also like to mention they are adding daycare spaces. Nonetheless, little of significance appears to happen on the school front for over a decade, except the future school sign seems to grow smaller.
UBC is also quick to point out any new school is contingent on the provincial government and the Vancouver School Board. Michael White’s July 5th, 2022 letter to the UNA Board is a case in point. White reminds the UNA that there are 800 daycare spaces on campus of which there are 74 current neighbourhood designated spots with 37 more in the pipeline. With 50,000 students, about 17,000 university workers, and close to 20,000 UNA residents (among which are at least 800 children) those 800 daycare spots seem a little short of what is needed. I have heard from new colleagues (who also live on campus) that the timeline to find a daycare space on campus makes it almost impossible for them.
Part of what made the U.Hill Secondary and Norma Rose Point School rebuild and expansion possible was that UBC worked directly with the UNA to actively lobby the provincial gov’t and the school board. In addition the university put up significant material resources in support of the school rebuild and expansion. In the context of the university’s current leadership vacuum, with most of the leadership either interim or on their way elsewhere, clear action from UBC on this issue is unlikely.
UBC could be doing things differently. So could the UNA. For starters, UBC could actually build an elementary school out of the profits it is generating through campus commercial developments. The UNA could take a more proactive approach and rebuild a community-based movement that links the three school Parent Advisory Councils with the wider residential community and make a new school and sufficient daycare a priority. Working together with the resources UBC has in hand could bring anew elementary school into reality. UBC needs to do more than write letters saying it is doing something. Put a full time staff person on the job, make each current and future development pay into a new school and daycare fund. That would be something that makes a real difference.