School board trustee Mary Lalji is continuing her fight to get a bus service between Queensborough and New Westminster Secondary School.
Lalji took aim at the transportation survey sent to families of kids attending New Westminster Secondary School or in Grade 8 at Queensborough Middle School, saying the questionnaire should have been distributed in multiple languages to take into consideration the diverse population of Queensborough.
“I feel the district did not make the effort to address cultural diversities,” Lalji said at Tuesday’s board meeting.
The surveys were sent in English only, which Lalji argued excluded some families from having their voices heard and unfairly limited the number of responses it received in return.
The survey asked whether families were interested in a paid bus service between Queensborough and the high school, which is located at Eighth Street and Eighth Avenue near Moody Park. A total of 273 surveys were sent out, 47 were returned completed and less than half of those indicated they were interested in a paid bus service. A report by district staff concluded that a bus service wouldn’t be possible without a significant subsidy.
Lalji thinks by not providing copies in other languages, the district inadvertently limited the number of surveys that were returned completed.
In Queensborough, 41.5 per cent of the population speak a language other than English at home, according to 2011 census information. In fact, six per cent of the population can’t speak English at all, according to the census. The most common languages spoken at home included Punjabi, Filipino (Tagalog), Hindi and several Chinese languages, including Cantonese, Mandarin and others that were unspecified.
“I think we need to correct this. I think we’re a very inclusive district, and I think we need to be more sympathetic to the cultural and language differences within our growing community,” she said.
Lalji made a motion to further discuss her concerns about the survey at the school board’s next operations policy and planning committee meeting on June 13. The motion was supported by her fellow trustees.
