There is no question that the Vancouver school district has excess capacity.

To be exact, there are 10,132 seats with no students on them.

But according to the city’s longest serving education trustee, that number shouldn’t actually be that huge.

Allan Wong, who has been a trustee since 1999, said that there are a “number of areas that need to be included in that count”.

According to Wong, the needs of vulnerable, special needs, and Indigenous students should be factored in.

“We need to measure and count that. How do you fit that in the count for capacity utilization? Because right now, those areas are not covered,” Wong told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview.

Wong explained that these students need extra classroom and resources, and these should be considered in calculating capacity.

“So basically what we’re looking at is rather than having 10,000 extra spaces, maybe we have only 5,000 extra spaces,” Wong said.

In 2016, the provincial government announced that it is removing the requirement for school districts to achieve a 95 percent utilization rate to qualify for funding for seismic upgrades of schools.

The Vancouver school district, which has a utilization rate of 82.75 percent, is currently putting together a new long-range facilities plan or LRFP.

A draft LRFP notes that school closures are going to be contentious.

However, the document states that the Vancouver school board has a “broader obligation to fulfill”.

“The District has the responsibility, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, to ensure that our students are educated in seismically safe schools,” according to the draft LRFP. “Should the VSB decide to continue operating its current inventory of schools in the context of past and ongoing enrolment decline, the district will arrive at a time when many thousands of our students attend unsafe schools while many of our seismically safe schools are operating well below optimal utilization levels.”

A fact sheet released by the district notes that the average age of schools in the city is 73 years. 

The paper notes that many schools are "beyond their original intended useful life".

In addition, the schools have accumulated a combined $751 million in deferred maintenance costs.

In the interview, Wong indicated that as far as the board is concerned, there has been “no statement of trying to reach a number” with respect to a utilization rate that the district wants to achieve.

“We need to find out what works, what is the best educational learning environment for our children,” Wong said.

That said, Wong noted that the Vancouver school district must have a clear discussion with the province about the funding for seismically-safe schools.

“There are things that still need to be addressed and discussed with the government, mainly to ensure that we get funding for expansion or new schools,” Wong said.

Wong mentioned the Cambie Corridor, False Creek, Downtown, Southeast Fraser Lands,  and UBC as areas that need either new schools or expanded facilities.