'I think it saves kids' lives': Unique Vancouver high school program forced to move

Vancouver -

A unique high school program in Vancouver has been told its students will have to relocate.

The Ideal Mini School has run for nearly 50 years in Vancouver School District. It’s a space for kids who have higher learning needs, experience social anxiety or are neurodiverse and does not require families to be living in its catchment area.

But the Vancouver School Board (VSB) says the program will need to move this fall to Sir Winston Churchill secondary school.

It says it needs to use Ideal’s current building to make room for in-catchment students at Laurier Elementary school.

“Currently, there are 37 Laurier catchment students who have been placed at nearby schools. Additionally, there are 20 kindergarten applicants for the 2023-2024 school year who would have been waitlisted and placed at other schools,” the VSB said in a statement to CTV News.

But Ideal’s parent advisory council (PAC) chair, Jennifer Uegama says the increased need of space is surprising, as the VSB rented out one of its annexes belonging to Laurier Elementary School to B.C. Francophone School Board.

The move comes as a shock to the parent advisory council (PAC), who says they were not consulted.

Churchill high school has more than 2,000 students enrolled, a big change for the 100 students who chose to learn at Ideal’s smaller setting.

“It was a surprise, it was shocking, it was upsetting,” said Uegama, "It's just an incredibly tight knit, accepting, safe, inclusive, community, that’s going to be extremely difficult to replicate anywhere else."

According to the VSB, consultation on the move is not required.

“The relocation of a District choice program is an operational matter that does not require Board approval,” it said in the statement.

Sasha Torchinsky is an alumni of the program. He enrolled 20 years ago after he says he was intensely bullied during his younger years.

"Queer kids, of course there's a million stories like mine, they get bullied really badly,” he said. “There's a lot of kids that don't make it because of the high school environment, because of bullying, because of being different, because of harassment or whatever. This is a lifeline for kids who've fallen through the cracks."

“I think it saves kids lives,” he said. “The relocation of Ideal is equivalent to closure.”

Current students agree the move could be detrimental.

"I wanted to be in a small setting so I could know everyone and learn better,” said Daniel Marques, a grade 8 student.

“It will affect my learning,” said Mita Linn, a grade 11 student. “Classes are so concentrated and small and teachers get to work with us personally."

The VSB says it recognizes that the transition could be a significant adjustment for students and families. It says it will work with administrators in the coming weeks to organize a meeting to answer questions and address any possible concerns.

However, the PAC says it requested that the VSB attend its emergency meeting being held Monday night, but it says the district declined.

“Over and over again we have pleaded with them to attend, and they’ve refused,” said Uegama. “We were scheduled to speak at Wednesday’s budget meeting for the VSB and we were removed from the agenda without our approval, so we are being blocked out of the process.”

The VSB recently closed its meetings to in-person attendance, restricting attendees to online viewing with the exception of one monthly meeting.