Councillors agreed unanimously Monday to allow the North Vancouver school district's board of education to hold its meetings in the City of North Vancouver's council chambers, although several said they were puzzled by the request given that the school district is currently building a new $32-million administration building.
"How did this come about?" asked Coun. Rod Clark. "I mean, the school district has a new building on Lonsdale. Did they not plan for meeting space?"
Larry Orr, city manager of lands and business services, said Superintendent John Lewis broached the idea with him a few months ago, and said the school district hoped to keep its conference space available for rental use.
Although an agreement has not yet been negotiated, the school district said it would pay for the security and other costs associated with using the council chambers roughly one Tuesday per month during the school year. The school board hopes to alternate years with the District of North Vancouver's chambers.
"I have no problem with them sharing our facility and using the bearpit here," Clark said. "We may get some rental out of it or some quid pro quo with their meeting space. My concern is that the school district seems to be operating in a vacuum, and it's not one that I favour."
Clark asked why the school district hadn't approached council sooner, and brought up a recent public meeting regarding the future of its surplus buildings.
"I read about it in the papers, and that's not the way it's supposed to be. . . . This is just one other instance where the school district is doing things behind closed doors and bringing it to the public after the fact." he said.
Coun. Pam Bookham suggested, and later withdrew, a deferral until a school district official appeared before council.
"I'm quite surprised, given the efforts that have been made by this community and this council to provide a new, state-of the-art facility for our school administrators to operate out of, and our school trustees, to think they won't be using that facility for one of its primary purposes," she said.
"I find it amazing that there is no one here from the school board to speak on this matter."
Coun. Linda Buchanan left North Vancouver's board of education to run for council in the last election. "I fully support this. I think it's an excellent joint use opportunity. I don't think, in this day and age, when the one taxpayer is looking at funding capital projects, to purpose-build a boardroom that is used once a month when there are two others available, makes sense.
"That plan was developed with full public consultation, so I take it as an accusation when we are pointing the finger and saying 'You're doing this behind closed doors.' That is wrong and it's not happening."
Coun. Don Bell also spent time on the school board, "back when we had one schoolhouse," he quipped.
"I'm surprised the school district didn't make its thoughts known to the city earlier," he said. "But I think the idea makes sense because the board room didn't get used that often."
Bell said he hoped using council chambers might help the school board have a larger public profile, particularly if they made use of the camera and broadcast equipment. "I'm just surprised that they would come at this stage, having built their house without a bathroom to say 'Can we use yours?'"
