The Cowichan Valley School District says it is frustrated with what it calls misinformation from the regional district about the sale of Koksilah Elementary School.
The Cowichan Valley Regional District sent a letter to the provincial government in June, raising concerns about the sale to a private party. It claimed the sale was completed without meaningful engagement, but board of education chair Cathy Schmidt says that’s not true.
BACKGROUND: CVRD asks province to review sale of former Koksilah Elementary School
“The consultation took place in 2021, which is when we received our letter of consultation from the CVRD,” she says. “We have a letter from the CVRD, in 2021, showing we consulted so we were really surprised this happened.”
Schmidt says there is a process for a school board to sell an educational institution, which includes consulting local governments and the province.
“We talk to the Nation, then local governments, including communities and then we have to do a variety of things with the ministry to get approval and then we go hiring a realtor,” she says. “We followed the process, just like we’ve already started the process with Cowichan Highschool. These processes take years.”
School Districts are designed to look after students education and their well-being and Schmidt says that’s exactly why the sale was done.
“The sale of the school will help us so much. The money goes into our capital account and this will help improve schools,” she says. “This will help us generate money into our operating account, so we can continue our level of service.
While the CVRD says it expressed interest in purchasing the school to align with community goals, Schmidt says the district never received a letter of interest.
“We have no formal letter from the CVRD leading up to the time we got our realtor saying they’d like to purchase it,” she says. “I’m sure everyone would’ve loved to lease the building, but it doesn’t bring the revenue that we need to do the capital projects.”
According to Schmidt, the Cowichan Valley School District receives $2.7 million per year for capital projects and money from the sale will help with maintenance.
“We have over $100 million worth of deferred maintenance that we need to get done on our building,” she says “This money is needed upfront and leasing it will not support kids and the amount of capital work we need on our buildings.”
