By Two & Out

Time for Kamloops MLAs to turn their attention from TRU to SD73

Sep 7, 2018 | 12:14 PM

THE LAST SCHOOL TO BE BUILT in the Kamloops-Thompson School District was Pacific Way Elementary in 2000.

In the 18 years that have passed since then, there has been a conservatively estimated $2.5 billion in construction activity throughout the City of Kamloops.

Of all that building, there has been only one significant capital project within the school district.

That would be the construction of the Trades Centre of Excellence at Norkam Secondary, a facility that opened in 2015.

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Conversely, while elementary and secondary school building has been almost non-existent, Thompson Rivers University has grown at a dizzying pace.

In fact, when Pacific Way opened, TRU was still University-College of the Cariboo, which seems in itself like a lifetime ago.

Something is wrong here.

Are we invisible?

Eliminate for a moment the need for new schools.

That’s not an easy thing to do, because the southwest sector of Kamloops, where the lion’s share of growth has happened and will happen in the city, badly needs a neighbourhood school.

But eliminate the consideration of new schools for a moment.

Our schools are old and many of them are deteriorating.

We have surplus school properties, but they’re old too and they can’t be picked up and moved to areas of need.

The district at least needs several major capital investments to retrofit or expand the schools we already have.

SouthKam Secondary is falling apart and Valleyview Secondary is bursting at the seams.

A school district official once told me the district could completely replace an elementary school every year for the next 25 years, and it still wouldn’t be keeping up.

This is the provincial government’s responsibility, and while we complained plenty about the previous Liberal government, there is no indication the current NDP government has any idea about the problem, either.

Over the years, our MLAs have done a great job advocating for this city’s university.

It’s time to turn their attention to raising hell about the state of our community’s public school district.