Jim Verkerk still has the newspaper clippings from 1997, when the Langley Continuing Education Centre very nearly ceased to exist.
They tell the story of how the school district pulled the plug after too many years of running a deficit, idling more than 100 instructors who taught around 10,000 people a year.
“Discontinuation wrong route,” one headline announced.
“All fired,” another said.
The articles went on to recount how Verkerk, the program manager, convinced the district to let him run it privately.
It had never been done before in Canada.
“Community Education Services” made a go of it by trimming overhead costs and operating with an administrative staff of three instead of 10.
Now, more than 20 years later, history has repeated itself.
Verkerk was packing up the office and computer lab on the third floor of the Langley civic facility at 203rd Street and 65th Avenue this week, in advance of a shutdown effective today (Friday).
“When I was hired in 1994, my new boss, the Assistant Superintendent, asked me to promise to stay for a minimum of three years,” Verkerk observed.
“It has been 25 years now. I wish I could stay on running Continuing Education forever, but I can’t,” he declared.
“I turned 65 almost two years ago and I have other important things [advocacy work] to do now. “
There have been tentative discussions about having one of the centre instructors take it over, but nothing has been signed so far.
An earlier attempt at having another long-time instructor take over ended in failure, Verkerk noted.
“I don’t really blame him,” Verkerk recounted.
“The business doesn’t really make any money. It pays a couple of staff and pays instructors to teach their excellent courses to the community and provides a little classroom rental income for schools.”
There have been years when he has had to personally subsidize the centre at the end of a long summer with no money coming in, Verkerk shared.
“I wish the School District or Kwantlen University would start it up again. They should do it not because they have to, but because they can.”
Abut 10 years ago, the program was close to calling it a day again, when it faced the loss of its classroom space.
After more than ten years operating from an unused classroom in the old Langley Prairie School, the school district needed the space back.
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Then-Township Mayor Kurt Alberts helped relocate the operation into the civic building the Township had just purchased and Verkerk moved in six months before the Township did.
If there is no last-minute rescue this time, the loss of the program will leave a hole, not just in Langley, Verkerk projected.
Adult education programs used to be common, but since they are not provincially funded or required under the School Act, cost-conscious school districts have, one by one, eliminated or substantially reduced the size of their night schools.
Kwantlen, Surrey, Vancouver, New Westminster and North and West Vancouver continuing education operations have all downsized, Verkerk related.
Ray Weremczuk, who worked with continuing education in Langley for seven years before Verkerk took over, is now the manager of continuing education business program in the Delta school district.
Despite the reduction in available night school classes, Weremczuk believes there is still a place for face-to-face classroom teaching.
“While in the intervening years, educational options have grown, and on-line videos and streaming will teach you everything from fixing your lawnmower to playing an Eddie Van Halen guitar solo to interpreting Existentialist literature [I think that] there are still a lot of people who like to go out and meet local people with similar interests, to learn things hands-on,” Weremczuk observed.
He predicted Langley will “feel the void ” if the program is no more.
Verkerk said the Langley continuing education became the largest program in B.C. by default.
“People from all over the Lower Mainland were coming to Langley to take courses which were no longer offered anywhere else.”
He estimated about a third of the students came from Abbotsford because of a lack of courses.
Verkerk estimates thousands of people have benefited from Langley continuing education courses which provided them “enjoyment and a chance to enrich their lives” and to learned skills that ” allowing them to start a new job.”
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Email: dan.ferguson@langleyadvancetimes.com
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