A school facilities plan for Richmond received almost unanimous support at Wednesday’s board of education meeting, with only one trustee abstaining because he said he couldn’t hear feedback properly from the public.
Trustee Richard Lee said he wouldn’t cast a vote because he had problems hearing speakers who had come to comment on the plan. He said he had confidence that the superintendent would continue to make improvements to the sound system in the board room and the committee rooms, because he has a hearing disability.
“I’m afraid tonight, I tried, but I did miss some of things said by our speakers, through no fault of them I’m sure, and therefore, I will be unable to cast a vote on this motion tonight,” Lee said.
The Long-Range Facilities Plan (LRFP) will now move forward with recommendations coming later on how to manage uneven growth throughout the school district.
Other trustees praised the thoroughness of the document and Trustee Debbie Tablotney said she will sleep better now that the document was done. She was grateful they had ministry funding to hire a team to create the LRFP. She compared the process this time round to the last process working with the previous government, which she said was harder.
“At the time, we did not even have the staff to put this document together,” Tablotney said. “The ministry was actually penalizing us and not approving seismic upgrades because we didn’t have this document.”
She added the ministry was asking them to consolidate space, meaning school closures, but at the time, the secretary-treasurer and director of facilities were doing it “off the sides of their desk.”
“We appealed to the ministry many times about the lack of staff and lack of resources to be able to put such a document together,” she said, adding that “the change in government, I have to say, has moved us forward in a completely different direction.” That included the staff and time to get it done, she said.
Four members of the public gave feedback on the plan at Wednesday’s meeting before it was accepted.
One Dixon parent said her family was “scarred” from the experience a few years ago when their school was considered for closure. There are several schools in the west that need seismic upgrading, and she said if students are moved and their progress disrupted, she’d like it done because something new is being built.
“If we can be impacted once and for a greater gain, I can see parents supporting that,” she said.
One parent from Mitchell elementary asked whether the LRFP will secure school district lands to be used for educational purposes.
Superintendent Scott Robinson responded that the LRFP doesn’t contemplate getting rid of school district land. If that were planned, there would be a consultation process, he added, and how that’s done is part of the LRFP. In addition, the School Act determines how lands can be disposed.
Board chair Ken Hamaguchi said there aren’t any plans now for land disposal.
“We are looking at different options, but in terms of (…) selling a school, that’s not on the radar right now,” he said.
Frank Geyer, who is the executive director of planning and development with the school district and the main architect of the LRFP, said there has been interest in the Mitchell property, some from the health-care sector, as part of the school will be demolished, but nothing concrete has been planned.
“Right now with the demolition of the oldest part of the school, we’ll end up with a considerable amount of frontage on Cambie Road,” he said. “There have been no plans officially, and there’s been very little discussion at this point looking at whether we’re going to entertain disposing that property, either through a lease or through a sale for purposes.”
He added that the current project is a seismic upgrade and expansion, not a subdivision and land disposal.
Trustee Donna Sargent, however, said she would be open to land disposal if the public is on board.
“If there’s an opportunity for disposal, I’m not quite saying ‘no,’” said Sargent. “That’s for discussion for down the road. If we can earn some money for the district somehow and it’s agreed upon by the public, then we should keep everything open, at least I am.”
