North Vancouver surplus school sites debated

Voices comment:  New chair of the North Vancouver School Board is Barry Forward

North Vancouver surplus school sites debated.

Quoting from the Strait.com:

ABOUT SIX MONTHS ago, a report was prepared about two surplus school properties on the North Shore.

Residential development was suggested for both the former Cloverley elementary school and the Lucas Centre/Leo Marshall Curriculum Centre, once a secondary school.

A month before the November 15 municipal election, the North Vancouver school board, whose trustees come from both the City of North Vancouver and the District of North Vancouver, reported that the sites have neither been sold nor placed in a process for their sale.

The board at that time also indicated that it looked forward to a new series of public consultations beginning in 2015 about the two City of North Vancouver properties.

It’s a discussion that returning school trustee Susan Skinner is eager to have.

“It’s so important to take our fiduciary duty very seriously and responsibly on behalf of the community, and not just for today’s needs but for tomorrow,” Skinner told the Georgia Straight in a December 9 phone interview.

Skinner, starting her fourth term, took the call a few hours before the new North Vancouver school board’s inaugural meeting; according to her, the mandate received by the new board in the last election is clear.

“When you look at this election, it is very telling, I would say, you know, [that] 80 to 95 percent of the public do not want public lands sold,” she said.

Including the Cloverley and Lucas Centre sites, the North Vancouver school district has 11 surplus school sites, a situation that came about because of declining enrollment.

Five of these former schools have been leased to various users. One—Blueridge Elementary in the District of North Vancouver—will be closed when Seymour Heights Elementary is replaced with a bigger school. Another site was sold to the District of North Vancouver for road-improvement purposes. Two others have been bought for future housing developments.

In October, a status report on the 11 surplus properties noted that the retention of sites through long-term leases not only provides revenues but also “offers protection to address potential future capacity needs”.

However, according to the same report, returns from leases, “while significant, are generally not sufficient to support financing of major capital initiatives, such as school replacement projects”.

“Where appropriate, the School District will consider the potential sale or long term lease of a site to achieve the funding necessary to reinvest in major capital initiatives,” the document also stated. “At the same time, the School District will continue to consider longer-term lease options that provide the opportunity to generate significant operating revenue, while continuing to retain ownership of the site.”

For Skinner, who is a mother of four school-age children, the choice should be easy.

“If you talk to an economist, they say…it doesn’t make a lot of financial sense to sell your real estate to deal with…current capital needs,” she said. “It is the responsibility of the provincial government to fund our schools [and] our capital needs.”

During the last election campaign, Skinner noted in a phone interview with the Straight that she and Barry Forward, who was then seeking a third term as trustee, have been advocating the retention of public ownership of the surplus sites for alternative community use and future educational needs.

Skinner also indicated at that time that she wanted to see newcomer Megan Higgins, a lawyer and mother of three school-age children, win a seat on the school board because they share the same thoughts about keeping public lands.

Higgins told the Straight by phone during the campaign that the City of North Vancouver’s population is expected to grow in the years ahead, and that it would need more schools.

Like Skinner, Forward and Higgins won in the election, which means that there are going to be at least three members on the seven-member school board who will push for community uses for these properties instead of outright sale.

Skinner said: “It would be up to the new board to take a look where we’re at in the process.”