Twas the night before the vote, and all through the land, electors dreamed that Vancouver would elect trustees and councillors with the vision to cope with the challenges ahead. Come on Vancouver, forget that boring mayoralty race and focus on school board. You know you want to. [sarcasm off]

Vancouver school board and education issues in the news, for your pre or post voting pleasure:

Fight Victoria, urge parents at school board debate: Parents expressed anger and frustration at the chronic delays in seismic school upgrades at a school board candidates debate last night in Vancouver, urging the panel to fight Victoria on what many see as a forced choice between school space, and school safety. (Colleen Kimmett, The Tyee, Friday November 14, 2008)

Child Care Bottleneck a Hot Voter Issue: Wait lists are long but empty classrooms stay off limits for care. Stressed parents are fuming. (Charles Campbell, The Tyee, Friday November 14, 2008) See also:

• After-school care in Vancouver hits crisis point (Charles Campbell, The Georgia Straight, August 21, 2008)

NPA makes education promises ahead of election (Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun, Wednesday, November 12, 2008)

Opposition candidates attack NPA school trustees: Two of the city's three major political civic parties have released their platforms for the Nov. 14 school board election. Vision released its school board platform Monday morning and COPE released a sprawling platform last week. The NPA says its positions will be released any day. (Cheryl Rossi , Vancouver Courier, Wednesday November 5, 2008)

NPA school trustee candidates out of touch with what is really happening in Vancouver schools, teachers say: Vancouver teachers are surprised at the lack of knowledge among the NPA candidates for school board trustee about the current realities of Vancouver public schools. (CNW Newswire, Wednesday November 8, 2008)

Vision platform to limit class size, advertising in schools (Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun, Monday, November 03, 2008)

Secret Vancouver school report on closures released, but heavily censored: A confidential report on the future of Vancouver public schools has been released more than a year after it was presented to trustees during an in camera meeting, but it's so heavily edited that it reveals little. (Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun, Tuesday, October 28, 2008)

Construction for both new schools and structural upgrades is one of the big issues facing Vancouver parents and other school community stakeholders, as almost one hundred

Fixing leaky schools: The province has settled with boards of education over the repair of leaky buildings. It was a long time coming, Wendy Stueck writes, and the work is only beginning. School boards have been looking for some way to recoup costs of repairs that in some cases amount to millions of dollars. The problems, similar to those that emerged with condominiums, involve "water ingress" or leaks, and affect schools built between 1985 and 2000. (Wendy Stueck, The Globe and Mail, Saturday November 15, 2008) See also:

• Recently constructed Dickens Elementary in Vancouver had its own construction issues; apparently either the designers or contractors got building elevations incorrect and as a result the middle block, which connects the classroom block to the gymnasium block, has what may prove to be an expensive flaw. The roof deck in the middle has a significant slope that leads directly to a glass wall and entry way on the classroom block. Some have expressed concerns that significant rain or snowfall could lead to future water ingress issues.
• Taxpayers' bill soars for leaky school: British Columbia is spending $2 million to repair an Abbotsford school built to great acclaim in 2000 as the province's first and only experiment with a public-private partnership (P3) for school construction. (Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun, Monday November 10, 2008)

Platforms for COPE [HTML], NPA [MS Word], Vision [PDF] can be found at the aforementioned links and are also attached for future reference (Note for the MS Word challenged: I've provided here a PDF version of the NPA document).