More than 500 desperate parents, students and staff packed a community meeting Monday night to tell the Vancouver School Board why Sir Guy Carleton Elementary deserves to stay open.

The 114-year-old heritage school in East Vancouver is one of five that may close next June in an effort to decrease the VSB's estimated $17.23-million budget shortfall.

Board member Patti Bacchus said the 10 public consultations are an effort to hear what people in the area really think of the potential school closures.

"This is when we need to hear from the community what the numbers don't tell us," she said.

Parents and students alike waved signs urging the board not to shut down the historic school.

The K-7 school, centred in the heart of Collingwood, has had declining enrollment for the better part of a decade.

But people at the meeting said shutting it down it will be like committing neighbourhood suicide, affecting local businesses and tearing the very fabric that's kept generations connected to their past.

Parent Advisory Committee President Anne Wong said she'd like to see the school made into a hub for after school activities and programs.

Wong urged board members to find solutions to keep the school open.

"Stand up for public education because the parents of this community are no different than anywhere else in Vancouver they deserve the school that they have had," she said.

Closing the doors will save roughly $468,000 a year. Keeping it open would require millions in seismic upgrades. Those upgrades were promised years ago -- but never happened. Now the board is faced with a difficult decision.

If Carleton closes, students will be absorbed by seven neighbouring schools. Although speculation is that their mind is already made up -- the Vancouver School Board says there is still hope.

The VSB announced its potential closure list earlier this month after whittling it down from a shortlist of 11. Several factors, including current and future enrolment as well as availability of space at neighbouring schools, went into the decision.

The five schools under consideration for closure at the end of this school year are:

  • Champlain Heights Annex (81 per cent enrolment)
  • McBride Annex (50 per cent enrolment)
  • Sir Guy Carleton Elementary (64 per cent enrolment)
  • Sir William Macdonald Elementary (24 per cent enrolment)
  • Queen Alexandra Elementary (69 per cent enrolment)

There will be two public meetings per school in the coming weeks. Information meetings are expected to last until Nov. 1, followed by public feedback sessions from Nov. 2 onwards.

A final decision on whether the schools will close is expected sometime in December in the hope parents can make alternate arrangements for the 2011-2012 school year.

Former education minister Margaret MacDiarmid was shuffled out of her position Monday, and replaced by George Abbott.

The education ministry and the VSB have been locked in a war of words since March, when the board announced a massive budget shortfall.

Bacchus said that she welcomed Abbott's appointment, but added, "I think we'll certainly want to bring him up to speed on the problems that we have."

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Norma Reid