ROTHENBURGER – A single word can change the fate of Stuart Wood school

THERE’S A GROWING movement to fight City Hall on the possible loss of Stuart Wood School and its grounds. People are angry at the prospect of it being torn down and replaced with a new RCMP detachment.

A motion by Coun. Margot Middleton, approved by council, calls for a review of potential locations for the police headquarters, “including the former Stuart Wood site.” A staff report is pending.

That’s why so many people showed up at the school last weekend and declared a hard “No” to any thought of turning the school into rubble.

There’s nothing “former” about Stuart Wood. Though neglected except for minimum maintenance since it was closed as a school a decade ago, it’s very much an important civic landmark and green space, especially for the weekly Farmers Market and for kids who use the playground during the week. The square-box gym annex currently houses the Out of the Cold shelter but the interior of the old school itself is a blank canvass.

Kamloops has seen this movie before. St. Andrews on the Square was branded “an old pile of boards” back in the early ‘90s and was saved and restored only because the community rebelled against the proposed teardown.

There are a few other successes but we’ve lost many treasured buildings, including Allan Matthews School (which was bulldozed in order to build the current police station), the Commercial Block, and the original Lloyd George elementary, plus dozens of heritage homes.

The past couple of councils didn’t seem very interested in heritage. The heritage commission — which was usually ignored anyway — was disbanded, replaced by an “engagement group” that reports to a committee of council. While that group is strictly advisory, fortunately it has stepped forward on the side of Stuart Wood.

Back in February of this year I sounded the alarm in a Chronicle column about the attitude in council chambers when the idea of removing the $110,000 budget for maintaining the school and grounds was discussed. The provincial government, which owns it, should ante up, council reasoned.

Fortunately, the funding cut was dropped but then-councillor, now-mayor Mike O’Reilly said he had no interest “in sinking money into the building” because it “provides us nothing in return.”

Yet various City planning exercises over the years have identified Stuart Wood as an important community asset that should be protected and repurposed. Rehabbing Stuart Wood would be expensive but there are many potential community uses for it.

Three council members who voted in favour of Middleton’s motion — O’Reilly and councillors Kelly Hall and Middleton herself — were re-elected along with Katie Neustaeter (who opposed the motion) and five new faces.

I’m hopeful the new council — including the mayor — can be convinced of the enormous social, cultural and economic value of Stuart Wood and, instead of writing it off, partner with the community to do groundwork on possibilities.

First, though, the immediate threat to Stuart Wood needs to be removed by changing a single word in Middleton’s resolution — replacing “including” with “excluding.”

Mel Rothenburger is former Kamloops mayor and school board chair who publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca website. This column also appears in the November edition of the Kamloops Chronicle.