The longest serving education trustee in Vancouver is proposing that the district runs its own childcare program.

Allan Wong has brought forward a motion recommending a demonstration project for a before- and after-school childcare.

Wong noted that the Vancouver School Board “potentially holding the childcare license is in the best interest of school aged children”.

According to Wong, the VSB has facilities to offer childcare spaces.

The district owns 77 elementary schools, 18 secondary schools, and 13 school annexes.

On October 11, 2019, a ribbon cutting event was held to celebrate the completion of a new, seismically safe Lord Nelson Elementary School.

The East Vancouver replacement school has a rooftop childcare facility, a first for the district.

The childcare facility is run by the Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House.

When a new Sir Sandford Fleming Elementary School is finished in East Vancouver, the nonprofit Development Disabilities Association of Vancouver-Richmond will operate the childcare facility in the building.

According to Wong’s motion, which is included in the VSB’s meeting agenda Monday (January 27), families in the district have an “increased need for more licensed childcare spaces”.

Wong noted that the “vast majority of children in school-age childcare are the same students enrolled in our schools”, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.