THE North Vancouver School District is getting ready to unload four schools that have been shuttered due to declining enrolment.
Monteray elementary, Plymouth elementary, Ridgeway Annex and Keith Lynn secondary sites are all on the block for potential sale or rental after the school district decided four of its 11 "surplus properties" could be leased or sold - subject to board and community approval.
"One of they key factors with these sites (is that) each of them has been vacant for a year and is still vacant," said board chairwoman Franci Stratton. "Empty facilities obviously incur costs. . . . And neighborhoods don't like to have vacant schools that are boarded up."
Of the seven other properties deemed surplus, Maplewood, Westover and Fromme elementary schools have already been leased long term.
Two of the properties that have attracted more controversy, Cloverley elementary and the Lucas Centre, will require a more refined public consultation process before any decisions about their future can be made, Stratton said. That will likely start in the late fall or early 2013.
"(We need) a longer, deeper look at these properties, the Lucas Centre being more complex," she said.
Blueridge elementary and Lonsdale Creek Annex are no longer being considered for sale and are likely to remain as is.
Some critics of the plan have opposed the sale of any of the properties on the philosophical grounds that public land should remain public. But, Stratton said, the buildings are shuttered and cost taxpayers money for upkeep when they could be put to better use.
"There's been, through the consultation process, thoughts around retaining land for the longer term; however, what are the creative ideas that can be used on these properties? That's what we're hoping to find when we see the proposals at the end of September," Stratton said.
Unlike most RFPs, the proponent will be required to present their ideas to the public as well as the school board before any decisions are made.
"We've got four neighbourhoods of people that will be impacted," Stratton said. "They are the ones that need to be involved in the decisions or options for proposals that come forward."
There are no specific projects the board is hoping to see, preferring to leave the options "open," but every proposal will be evaluated based on how well it meshes with the board's strategic plan and the municipality's official community plan.
"And obviously we'll be looking at the financial piece to the options that come forward," Stratton added. It's too soon to say how much the properties may be worth if they are either sold or rented, but Stratton said the public will have say in how the funds are spent, as long as it's done to "enhance" education in North Vancouver.
There's also the matter of the $7 million the district owes to the Ministry of Education for financing previous school improvements, Stratton noted. "That is something that's there for the board to consider. Other than that, we would be looking over the longer term at how we can improve and enhance," she said. "Our budget is balanced without it."
Despite some early worries voiced by critics that all 11 properties were destined to be sold to condo developers, Stratton said this has been one of the most transparent processes the school district has been through, and there is plenty of consultation yet to be done.
"We had a lot of good feedback from community members saying this has been an open process that has never been seen before," she said.
Stratton did not know yet how many expressions of interest or proposals had come in.
