‘Save Stuart Wood’ call picks up speed

‘It’s all excuses,’ councillor says

School needed downtown, says KCBIA

Having school in core ‘key,’ say residents

/By MICHELE YOUNG and MIKE YOUDS

As a decision by the school board on the future of Stuart Wood elementary draws closer, those who want to keep it open aren’t giving up.

A letter from the Downtown and West End Residents Association, as reported Monday in The Armchair Mayor News, urges the board to work with the group and with City council to find funding to preserve the 107-year-old school.

Some members of City council want to see the building saved as a school, and so does the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association.

The Kamloops-Thompson School board could vote to close the school at its June 23 meeting or just as easily defer a decision as it explores alternatives with the City, Chair Denise Harper said.

She said she appreciates the letter from the resident’s association but “we are bound by a lot of physical difficulties,” referring to the major capital costs required to properly upgrade the building to education standards.

Harper said there has been no formal discussion with City council on the school’s future. In casual discussion with City representatives they indicated there was no interest in taking on a costly retrofit at this time, she said.

“When we asked, they said, ‘We don’t have the money; we’d just as soon you keep it.’ Of course, the City has the ability to raise the funds. We do not.

“There isn’t the money there,” she added. “Look at the struggles with the teachers trying to get a collective agreement.”

As the crow flies, Beattie is closer to Stuart Wood than Lloyd George elementary, so there would be less travel time for students, Harper noted. On the other hand, there are traffic congestion issues with the McGill-Columbia intersection, she acknowledged.

She also said that the district is prepared to look at providing transportation if Stuart Wood students are shifted to Beattie, recognizing that most Stuart Wood students are already shuttled from neighbourhoods other than the downtown.

But Harper pointed out that five board trustees are from Kamloops and that the board has received considerable neighbourhood input on the subject in the past month. A decision June 23 could go either way.

“Being sensitive to neighbourhoods is our role,” she said. “I know the City would vote to preserve the building and put it to good use. It may be that the trustees vote to defer until a meeting with the City has occurred.”

The association galvanized around the school’s possible closure more than any other community concern.

“We strongly believe that a community school is necessary to maintain a vibrant community and to attract new families to this area,” the group notes in a letter signed by association chairman Denis Walsh.

“We feel that keeping Stuart Wood functioning would be a key factor in increasing density downtown and in developing a sustainable and healthy environment.”

Coun. Tina Lange said Mayor Peter Milobar and fellow Coun. Ken Christian, who is a former school board chairman, have been clear they want Stuart Wood to continue as a school.

“These are people well enough connected to have conversations with the school board,” she said.

The City hasn’t weighed in publicly because it doesn’t and can’t tell the school board what to do.

“It’s not our position,” said Lange.

The school district’s contention that Stuart Wood is substandard compared with its newer schools is a false argument, she said.

“It’s all excuses. That is a beautiful heritage school. They could make it a heritage school.”

There is concern that if Stuart Wood closes, it leaves the downtown area with no regular-curriculum elementary school. Nearby Lloyd George was converted four years ago from dual-track English and French immersion to only French immersion. Students on the English side were sent to Stuart Wood at the time to boost its numbers and keep it open.

Now, however, the district wants to move those students up to the Beattie elementary school on McGill.

Lange said having a school downtown helps attract families to live in the area. The City is trying to improve the density of downtown — the more people who live there, the better.

“It’s a priority for us to protect the downtown,” she said.

With the closure of the Kamloops Daily News and the pending move of the casino to the Aberdeen/Dufferin area, there are worries about the downtown taking a hit. On the other hand, the Sandman Signature hotel has just had a soft opening and two other hotels have done major makeovers: Hotel 540 and Double Tree.

Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association general manager Gay Pooler said her organization sent a letter to the school board asking for an elementary school in the downtown — and the Beattie/McGill building is not downtown.

“We don’t think it’s a good idea,” to move kids out of Stuart Wood and up the hill, she said.

“It helps make a complete neighbourhood and we want to attract more residents to live downtown. Families might not be a huge part of the people we can attract downtown, but if you don’t have a school, it’s harder.”

School district Supt. Terry Sullivan said if a teacher, parent or student in a wheelchair wants to access Stuart Wood, they can’t get into the building. The district could be open to a lawsuit if a teacher or student decides to press the access issue, although it hasn’t come up so far. Sullivan said those issues are unavoidable.

Even if the City offered to sell the old brick school to the district, there would still be major money needed to fix it up.

“If we bought it, we still have to put money into it. I understand people have an historic attachment to Stuart Wood, I understand the issue of the downtown. But my lens is an education lens,” he said.

“We have to bring it up to standard. . . . Regardless of who owns it, it’ll have to be brought up to standard.”

Board staff are getting answers to questions asked by trustees at a meeting in late May. Sullivan said he’s hoping for a decision by the end of the current school year — just a few weeks away.

“They’ll decide when they have the information they need,” he said.

“Our job is to make sure every question is answered and all the information is provided.”

Harper didn’t think the residents’ association Plan B, making Lloyd George elementary a two-track English/French school, would have much traction. The idea came from trustee Annette Glover.

The board decision a few years back to go single-track French immersion was successful in boosting enrolment, so they wouldn’t want to backtrack, Harper said.