Ladysmith council gave its endorsement on the potential plan to build a new École Davis Road school, voting unanimously to send a letter to the province in support of its development.
The topic came up at a town council meeting April 2 at the Ladysmith Seniors Centre.
“I think we know based on public communications with the school district that was the favoured option in consultation with our community,” said Mayor Aaron Stone. “It seems to be a shared vision for council as well as our school district and it aligns with our OCP policy and recognizing the south-end growth potential is quite high.”
Council’s endorsement follows a discussion from earlier this year at a Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools business committee meeting. In February, the committee directed staff to create a report around demolishing the former elementary school on Davis Road and rebuilding at that location in part due to accessibility issues around the aging Ladysmith Intermediate School. The intermediate school also has seismic deficiencies.
Mark Walsh, secretary-treasurer for the school district told the board at that time that through consultation, community members expressed strong support for the re-opening of a school in the south part of Ladysmith as well as a desire to bring back French immersion there.
SD68 is anticipating that the Ministry of Education is willing to invest $25 million on upgrades to Ladysmith Intermediate School, but according to the secretary-treasurer, the board can instead use that money to build a new school with the school district funding the difference. He estimates the demolition and rebuild would cost an additional $7-9 million.
READ MORE: SD68 exploring funding options to rebuild closed school in Ladysmith
“There’s a bunch of benefits to that. Kids don’t have to live on a construction site, they don’t need to be bused to Woodbank for the year or two that it takes to upgrade the facility,” Walsh told the board. “What would happen is we would open Davis Road as a K-7 French immersion, then we would change Ladysmith Primary to another K-7 because we have expansion dollars. But the [school district], again, would ultimately be required to fund some portion of, if not the entirety of the difference between the low- and the high-cost option.”