What's it take to get a school built? If it's in North Vancouver, apparently these days it involves selling off land of former school sites to raise the money.
This pits the school board and the interests of students against neighbours who don't want to see more residential development.
District and city council find themselves in the middle, having to make zoning decisions in their jurisdiction that impact whether or not students have adequate facilities.
We saw this flawed process fail this week when District of North Vancouver council gave the school district plan to rebuild Argyle secondary a $2.4-million setback by turning down seven singlefamily homes on a wooded corner of Braemar elementary.
It is the Ministry of Education's responsibility to fund school capital projects but the trend from Victoria in recent years has been to put up the bare minimum amount of funding, schedule a photo-op and leave the school districts to "be creative" in finding the cash to finish the project in a way that makes financial sense.
The latest, let-them-eat-cake idea from the province is funding capital projects out of operating budget surpluses - as if school districts' bank accounts are overflowing with money. This essentially punishes boards for being financially prudent.
North Shore homeowners who paid their annual municipal taxes have all likely noticed a sizable amount on the line labelled "school taxes." Unfortunately, that money goes directly to the province.
If this is how schools are made, we give the process an F.
