Dear Editor:

School boards are mandated to provide the best educational opportunities to their communities with the provincial funds that are made available to them. Your Nov. 7 story, NVSD Surplus Property Worth $100M, indicates that the North Vancouver school district is considering making a dramatic philosophical shift in the way it is carrying out its mandate.

Rather than guarding and preserving the public assets (mainly land and buildings) under their control, the district is considering selling "surplus" properties to fulfill their "future" goals, which could include capital projects and other educational "opportunities."

This flawed thinking will have serious negative consequences, not only in the relatively short term of the next 10 years, but in how education will be delivered in our district for decades to come. The NVSD will divert effort from their educational mandate to the raising of funds, either through the sale of land or through future property development. This will either strain the current administration or it will force them to create a new level of bureaucracy to handle this new venture.

Would the City and District of North Vancouver sell park lands to cover present funding problems? I think not. Our school board is thinking not for the long-term future of the school district, but rather is seeking a short-sighted and easy method to solve the problems that this particular administration is being confronted with. Within a few years the decline in student enrolment is predicted to stop and enrolment will then begin to increase. In 50 years, the money gained from the sale of our school properties will be gone and forgotten. The consequences of selling school land today, however, will last forever.

Rick Burns

North Vancouver