By Jim Sinclair, Castlegar News
MacLean School is set to be sold to the French school district.
A bylaw making way for the sale of MacLean Elementary School to the French School District 93 was given first and second reading by the school board at its regular meeting Monday, Oct. 21 at Stanley Humphries Secondary School in Castlegar.
Relief in relation to the $1 million sale was expressed by board chair Darrel Ganzert, as well as by several trustees.
"The selling of MacLean School is a huge step forward for the board," said Ganzert the morning following the meeting.
"What it allows us to do is to top up our facilities grant because we used most of last year's and this year's grant to convert Rossland from a high school to a K-9 school.”
That move left the district without much at all, said Ganzert. The sale could help “top up” the facilities grant fund and allow the district to “look very closely at fixing the water at the Rossland school, at least the drinking water side of things."
Another property disposition bylaw—concerning the location of school district offices—was also given first and second reading on Monday night. This one, regarding the vacating of leased space in the downtown Trail FortisBC building was addressed by Ganzert on Tuesday morning.
"It's the one thing the public has complained about, and rightly so, for many years," the board chair said. "Now, with our lease running out with Fortis, we have the opportunity to leave.”
The school district will be moving the board office to the second floor of the Trail Middle School.
“Then we'll be in our own building and not paying the lease rent to anyone," said Ganzert.
Dealing with other agenda items, the board agreed unanimously to look at setting up committees to re-name Trail Middle School and Rossland School in order to reflect the changes at the respective institutions.