School District #83 is looking to put some for-sale signs on properties no longer considered needed for educational purposes.
At Tuesday’s regular school board meeting which took place after the Observer’s press deadline, trustees were to discuss a number of school-district owned properties and to direct staff to proceed with the policy to dispose of them.
The properties include big-ticket items like the current school board administration offices of Shuswap Street, which would be unnecessary if the school district proceeds with plans to build new office space on the site of the former JL Jackson school and the sale of Ashton Creek school, which was closed prior to this school year due to declining enrolment.
Other properties to potentially go on the block are: North Broadview School, Mt. Ida School, the North Canoe Annex, a vacant bus garage site, the South Canoe Centre, which is currently housing alternate school programs, and the new Jackson annex.
But this does not mean residents will be seeing for-sale signs going up any time soon.
“This is really the start of a process to consider if this is an asset that should be kept or if we should consider disposing of it,” says Stirling Olson, secretary-treasurer for School District #83. “By putting this motion forward, we can begin the public consultation process.”
In order to dispose of school district property there must be a public process, as well as approval from the Ministry of Education.
“People may come forward with some ideas for these properties, we may need them for another reason, but it is not until we open the process do we have the ability to consider them,” adds Olson.
Fair market value is also to be considered when the school district is selling any property.
Proceeds of any sale would go directly into the budget for this district. Revenue generated from leasing properties can be used towards the school district’s operational budget, while revenue from a property sale would be mandated to be used for capital funding.