The Vancouver School Board has named the five schools it is considering closing next year to compensate for its multi-million dollar shortfall.

Several factors, including current and future enrollment as well as availability of space at neighbouring schools, went into the decision.

The five schools are:

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

All of the schools are in East Vancouver. A sixth school, Garibaldi, will follow a separate process.

The findings were presented in a 144-page report to selected school board members at a meeting in Vancouver Monday night.

Related: Read the full report

The document contains detailed analysis of enrolment trends, space utilizations, current faculty and programming, as well as operational issues and potential financial impacts.

The report will go to the full board Tuesday night for a decision about which schools to advance to the public consultation stage.

There will be two meetings per school in the coming weeks. Information meetings are expected from Oct. 25 to Nov. 1, followed by public feedback sessions from Nov. 2 onwards.

All schools could close their doors as early as June. A final decision on whether they will close is expected sometime in December; in the hopes parents can make alternate arrangements for their children in the 2011-2012 school year.

Parents CTV News spoke with at Sir William Macdonald were disappointed with the decision.

"I don't want [my children] running around doing what I was doing when I was a lot younger, bouncing around from one school to another," one father said.

Some parents expressed concern over moving their children to another, possibly bigger school where administrators and teachers may not treat students the same.

"With this school there is more one-on-one with the kids and more interaction. They seem to care a lot about the kids. It seems with the bigger the school, the less attention they get," another parent told CTV News.

Six schools were saved from the chopping block and removed from the list of potential closures in the report:

  • Bruce Elementary
  • Collingwood Neighbourhood School
  • Dickens Annex
  • Hudson Elementary
  • Kerrisdale Annex
  • Seymour Elementary

The potential closures are part of the VSB's plan to tackle what it says is a $17.23-million budget shortfall. The board voted in June to cut 137 full-time positions.

With files from CTV British Columbia's Norma Reid

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