To some, Vancouver many historic schools are among the few remaining artifacts of the early city, visible and valuable mementoes that should be saved. To others, they are death-traps, likely to crumble instantly on top of the heads of students the next time there is even a mild earthquake here.
The Vancouver school board has been caught between those two views since the 1990s, when groups of parents successfully lobbied the board and the provincial government for money to restore or rebuild those schools.
Although the board has restored many schools, it has also taken down others after (or before) building new schools, notably Magee secondary, Dickens elementary, and Kitchener elementary. Up next: Hudson elementary, L’Ecole Bilingue, and Kitsilano secondary.
Now, given the chance to try something else due to the luck of working with a large lot, as I wrote in the Globe this week, the board is trying to find someone, anyone (except a private-school operation) to take on the about-to-be-abandoned Sexsmith elementary, 103 years old, and possibly Douglas elementary.