Fix school or ditch it?

Photo: Contributed

What to do with Charles Bloom Secondary School was the topic of discussion in Lumby Wednesday evening.

School District 22 was gathering public opinion on the future of the aging school, but the mayor said there are a couple of options he favours.

“One was to build a new school and the other was to renovate the ones that we have. There was not a lot of information provided,” said Kevin Acton of the meeting. “It was just sort of first blush. I think the school board was just throwing some things out there to see what the community was hoping to see.”

Acton said he would reserve any decisions on what to do until more information is made available.

One concern Acton had with building a new high school is it would not be built to the same capacity as the current school and that would not bode well for future growth of the community.

“I have some concerns about that. It would be smaller,” he said. 

“With Lumby's growth and the way things are going now compared to 10 years ago, if it is based on old numbers I would have a few concerns around that.”

Acton said he would prefer to see the school renovated.

It's estimated $20 million is needed to replace Charles Bloom Secondary.

A long-term facilities plan released in 2016 found Charles Bloom among 10 Vernon School District facilities in very poor condition.

“I think we are going to have some more public consultations,” said Acton. “It took 10 years to replace VSS so it takes some time to get these things rolling. We're going to talk to the school board about what we have in our strategic plan. For now, I would like to see the capacity remain the same. It's better for Lumby's future growth if we have the capacity here.”