Saving Stuart Wood just too bold, too daring

SUNDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — There are four obvious options for the Kamloops-Thompson school board on Monday night when the subject of Stuart Wood elementary comes up, and the first two don’t count.

One is that the board could choose to shut down Stuart Wood but send its students to Lloyd George elementary instead of the Beattie School of the Arts on McGill Road. Trustee Annette Glove has raised the idea but there’s no hint that other trustees are much interested in it.

Glover thinks that if Stuart Wood closes, shuffling things around so the students would go to Lloyd George would at least keep regular elementary school classes in the general downtown area. Whenever she’s raised it, it hasn’t generated any discussion.

A second option is to acknowledge the importance of inner city schools, and of keeping Stuart Wood for its intended purpose, compromise on its deficiencies and commit to saving it as an elementary school.

Sadly, that option won’t fly, either. Administration is set in its determination that Stuart Wood must go, and the school board simply won’t go against staff’s no-if-ands-or-buts recommendation.

Thirdly, the board can simply raise its hands and approve bolus bolus administration’s domino shuffling plan, which includes closing Stuart Wood and handing it back to the City, which owns the property.

And fourth, a distinct possibility, trustees could put off the inevitable and table the matter for another day, perhaps to consider Glover’s option or some variation of it.

Our bet is on either the third or fourth option.

There’s a fifth option, raised by The Armchair Mayor News, which is to arrange a swap with the City whereby the school district gives up Henry Grube Centre and moves its programs and offices into Stuart Wood, while the City takes over the Grube Centre and uses the property for a performing arts centre.

While that makes total sense (assuming the board is determined to close Stuart Wood), and is totally doable, City Hall is doing its best to write off Henry Grube as a location for an arts centre, and the school district hasn’t even thought about the scenario.

The very best option, of course, is the second — acknowledge that schools are an essential ingredient in defining neighbourhoods and communities and that certain buildings are worthy of keeping for their original purpose. In other words, invest in Stuart Wood instead of abandoning it.

But, nah, that would be too bold, too daring, too outside the box. Instead, crunch the numbers and go with the financial balance sheet instead of the social balance sheet.