The Sooke School District is making a wise and fiscally prudent decision to jump start the process to purchase land for new schools on the West Shore. Although the province has the final say on whether the four to six purchases earmarked by the district will proceed, the need for more schools is no secret, with the accelerated growth taking place on the West Shore projected to continue for the next 10 years.
We need look no further for an example than Royal Bay secondary, where four portable classrooms have been added to a school that only opened in September 2015. Add in the fact the Royal Bay development in which the school sits plans to add another 1,200 family homes and the dire need for more space is clear.
The district has placed construction of a new middle school at the top of its priority list. The requirement for three more elementary schools has also been brought forward, all of which require land on which to build.
We don’t see this case of preparing for future needs – identifying appropriate lands and setting the wheels in motion to purchase them – as putting the cart before the horse. The students are coming, there’s no doubt of that.
The purchase price estimated by the school board ranges from $300,000 an acre to $2 million, depending on location and suitability.
It’s important not to delay the inevitable purchases, with the price of land on the West Shore sure to rise in the short term and the availability of suitable sites bound to decline due to residential development. Any delays will require more money for capital purchases and less available to put toward learning.
We trust the SD62 board of education will do its due diligence by thoroughly examining these potential sites to determine which serves the West Shore best for future needs.
We hope the Ministry of Education’s capital branch, which controls the purse strings for new school projects, will agree that the time to buy land is now.