(Image Credit: Mel Rothenburger)

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Ditch current plans for Stuart Wood and make it a school again

Aug 17, 2019 | 6:53 AM

THE MORE I THINK ABOUT IT, the more I think a big mistake is being made with Stuart Wood school.

As the painfully long process drags on sorting out control of the property, there’s time to reflect. There’s nothing particularly wrong with turning it into a museum-cultural centre, but that building is meant to be a school.

The school board backed away three years ago from doing the necessary upgrades due to the cost — $4 million. There will come a day in the not-too-distant future when that will look like a bargain.

Stuart Wood is arguably one of the two most important heritage building in Kamloops; the other one being the Old Courthouse. Unlike the courthouse, however, the school isn’t boxed in by a one-way street grid. One hundred and 12 years old, it sits on a spacious property in the heart of downtown.

If not a school, it should have been turned into a new City Hall, but that ship has sailed. And, in retrospect, maybe it’s a good thing it has — but a museum and indigenous cultural center is not the best use.

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The motivation for keeping it as a school isn’t based entirely on sentimentality; it’s logical if one looks at what’s going on the downtown core.

City Hall is nervously looking ahead to future growth, and realizes it can’t continue the way it’s been going. Kamloops simply can’t be allowed to sprawl ever outward up over the hills, multiplying culs de sac and mini malls.

As housing pressures increase, transportation and infrastructure challenges increase as well. “Densification” is the word of the day and it’s no truer than in the downtown area. There are signs of it already as new apartment blocks and condos rise a short walk from Victoria Street.

When the city’s population hits 120,000, 20 per cent of it will live in the downtown core.

The downtown is on the cusp of becoming a 24-hour going concern, not a day-time commuter population and night-time no-man’s land. Families will choose between the ‘burbs and the urban core, and many more will pick the latter.

And what will happen then? Families include kids, who need an education. A school will be needed in the city’s core.

The City Centre Plan of 2005 saw it coming. “The City will encourage the retention of public facilities such as schools, churches and recreation facilities within the City Centre,” it said. “This support recognizes the value of these facilities to residents of City Centre neighbourhoods.”

The plan called for the City to work with the school district toward “preserving and protecting the Stuart Wood School building and retaining its use as a school.”

All that fell by the wayside when the school board lost its vision while squinting at the balance sheets.

The Downtown Plan, the successor to the old City Centre Plan, is in the final stages and one of its tenets is the creation of “more opportunities for people to live in the downtown to support local business/services and encourage vitality and more activity on the street past usual business hours.”

Fundamental to building downtown populations is the availability of schools. Public consultation for the new Downtown Plan raised the expectation that a school will be needed downtown, with the suggestion to “reopen Stuart Wood or use other nearby schools to accommodate Downtown students” and “ensure (the) new school is not a school of choice.”

But then there’s the matter of cost. When the school board unanimously voted in 2014 to close Stuart Wood, it was about the money. They talked about accessibility, safety and the need for significant upgrades, but it was about the $4 million, a number some contended was exaggerated.

The public rebelled, but to no avail. When the board talked about closing the school in the mid-1970s, trustees were fortunate to avoid a public lynching. The school stayed open. Residents rebelled again in 2014 but, this time, to no avail. The board ignored two residents’ associations, the heritage commission, the Kamloops Central BIA and pretty much every resident of the downtown area, refusing even to let residents speak at the board meeting before the decision was made.

Assuming Stuart Wood becomes the Stuart Wood Museum and Indigenous Cultural Centre, what will a brand new school cost? Estimates for new Sun Peaks and Pineview elementary schools are $25 million apiece. It seems to be the going rate.

That’s six times the cost of upgrading Stuart Wood and saving it as a school.

Neighbourhoods change. Sometimes, schools are closed, only to be needed again. Westsyde elementary will re-open in September after being shuttered for school purposes for 13 years. It will cost a million bucks to get it back in shape.

The best move for the City and School District 73 would be to save themselves a pile of money, get themselves out of this museum-cultural centre deal and resurrect Stuart Wood as it should be — a city centre school.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.