Six-year-old Kiana Tsui and her 10-year-old brother Dante Tsui were too upset to go to class at Sundance Elementary School on Friday.
On Thursday, Greater Victoria school trustees voted 5-4 to shut the doors at Sundance at a meeting packed with school supporters.
“It was a pretty intense and emotional meeting,” said school board chairwoman Peg Orcherton, who voted in favour of closing the school at the end of the semester and moving its arts-focused programs to Lake Hill Elementary.
Declining enrolment was one factor in the decision. The Jubilee-area school has 58 students, about half what it had in 2003.
The Greater Victoria school district is grappling with a $1.82-million budget shortfall for 2014-15. Closing Sundance, one of several cost-cutting measures that had been identified, is expected to save the district $315,182. Keeping the school open could have meant the layoff of four teachers, Orcherton said.
The Tsui siblings’ mother, Kira Antinuk, said she is as disturbed about the process leading up to the vote as she is about the outcome. She said the process did not deliver on the consultation and collaboration that was promised and the closing was destined to happen.
“In my view, at this point, the entire process is deeply, deeply flawed.”
Antinuk said very few students are likely to travel across town to attend Lake Hill and many Sundance families moved into the area specifically to be close to the school. “We actually bought the house directly across the street from the school just because the school was in the neighbourhood,” she said.
Antinuk said she is considering private school for her children.
Orcherton said the outcome of the vote doesn’t mean trustees aren’t behind Sundance students.
“The board is extremely focused on the commitment to Sundance,” she said. “We think it’s still viable and there’s going to be a lot of work with the parents.”
Leasing is a possibility for the Sundance building, but the board is not interested in selling it, Orcherton said.
Orcherton as well as trustees Michael McEvoy, Bev Horsman, Elaine Leonard and Tom Ferris voted to close the school, while Deborah Nohr, Catherine Alpha, Diane McNally and Edith Loring-Kuhanga voted against.
The Greater Victoria district cited an overall trend of declining enrolment in B.C. in a string of seven school closings from 2003 to 2007. Many other districts around the province also closed school during that time.
