Imagine you’re a Clark County high school student with nothing in particular to do after school. Maybe your parents won’t get home until dinner time. You don’t have a car. Your wallet is empty. You’re kind of bored. And it’s raining.
Now what?
If Vancouver City Councilman Bart Hansen gets his wish, all high school students countywide with a specially marked ID card could hop on a C-Tran bus for free on weekdays. The teens could ride to a city-owned community center and get free admission to swim, work out, play basketball, rock climb or just hang out. Or they might hitch a free bus ride to the library, a nonprofit organization or even church.
“I want them to have the opportunity to recreate and study in a safe environment without having to be concerned about cost,” said Hansen, who has a son in high school and a daughter in elementary school. “Regardless of what they’re doing, they’d have the transportation to get there.”
Hansen, who first pitched the idea at the council’s annual retreat last month, emphasized that the idea is in its infancy. Also, the city council has not formally considered the proposal yet. Many questions need to be answered, and a variety of entities would need to agree upon a plan and coordinate efforts to pull it off, he said. Those entities would include, at least initially, the city of Vancouver, the school districts and C-Tran.
Ultimately, “parental involvement is key to this idea,” said Hansen, who envisions requiring parents to sign off on the ID clearance that would be necessary for students to participate.
Stakeholders’ initial reaction to the concept has been enthusiasm tempered with the knowledge that although the idea is simple, executing it may not be. Clark County has nine school districts with more than 25,000 high school students, according to Educational Service District 112.
C-Tran spokeswoman Katy Belokonny said her agency needs more information before it can begin a feasibility analysis.
“It’s definitely something we would be interested in looking at in more detail,” Belokonny said last week.
There would be many policy implications to examine, and ultimately, C-Tran takes its direction from its board of directors, she said.
City Manager Eric Holmes said it is “tremendous” that an elected leader would want to take on a problem the community has struggled with for years — filling the “at risk” after-school hours for teenagers.
“When there’s not constructive activities for kids,” Holmes said, “there’s a higher risk that they get involved in unconstructive activities.”
Finding a solution benefits the city and society in the long term, and it would ease the strain on police and facility maintenance, he said. Making it work would require starting small and proving the program is successful before expanding it, he said.
But what if hundreds of students were suddenly to descend upon the city’s two community centers?
“What a great problem to have,” Holmes said.
According to Parks and Recreation Director Julie Hannon, the Marshall and Firstenburg community centers have the capacity to handle more students after school.
“We’re looking forward to hopefully having some new faces come to our facilities and learn what we’re about,” she said.
The community centers have teen recreation rooms with lounges, video games, pingpong, pool tables and foosball. Access to the teen rooms is free with picture ID, but the drop-in fee to use the facilities’ other amenities, such as the swimming pools, is $3 at the Marshall Center and $4 at the Firstenburg Center for ages 4 to 18. Currently, 20 to 30 teenagers per day frequent the teen centers, Hannon said.
Officials with Evergreen Public Schools said anything that provides after-school opportunities for students to gather in a productive environment is “fabulous.” Students already have ID cards, and the district could put a sticker on them indicating parental approval, said Gail Spolar, Evergreen’s communications director. The district has about 8,000 high school students.
“I’d assume the parents would be delighted to have this opportunity,” she said. “It’s well worth any additional little administrative piece we’d have to put in.”
In a Feb. 27 email, Vancouver Public Schools Superintendent Steve Webb told The Columbian that many students in the district live in poverty. Free public transportation would enable them to take advantage of the district’s extended-day programs and learning opportunities.
“I appreciate the city of Vancouver’s willingness to explore a creative solution to build assets that might benefit Vancouver’s children,” Webb said.
