Finance Minister Kevin Falcon announced in the provincial budget a few weeks ago that school districts once again have the authority to sell off unused school properties to raise money to finance new capital projects.
School boards had that right taken away from them in 2008, when then-premier Gordon Campbell ruled government permission was necessary before any schools could be sold.
But don't expect the new rule to create a rush of property transactions in Prince George, simply because there isn't much of a market. School District 57 secretary treasurer Bryan Mix said the ministry gave school boards approval to sell off unused school assets five or six years ago, but even then, buyers were scarce.
"They weren't getting the kind of revenue they were expecting," Mix said. "The value you get for them is not great.
"Right now we don't really have anything to market," he said.
The school district now has four unoccupied elementary schools in Prince George -- Austin Road, Central Fort George, Shady Valley and Gladstone. While three of those schools are on the selling block, the school district plans to keep Gladstone in its inventory because of its location in Lower College Heights in an area where there is considerable residential growth potential.
The school district tries to find alternative community groups that operate in neighbourhoods near the school to take over unused buildings. Austin Road's gymnasium is used for archery on a regular basis as home for the Silvertip Archers. The closed South Fort George elementary school is now a community resource centre, Highland has been converted into a YMCA daycare/after school care facility, Meadow is now the home of the Rocky Mountain Rangers Prince George detachment, and North Nechako school is now a farmer's market and storage facility.
"The minister's order has not changed," Mix said. "We still need to go through a process to sell the buildings. First we have to find is there is an alternate community use, and if not, then you can sell the building off."
School District 57 did sell Hart Highlands and Wildwood schools a few years ago but Mix said both of those properties are back on the market. In most cases, he said school buildings have limited appeal with buyers unless they plan to use them as schools.
"When you look at a school, the applications are really limited and the reconfiguration costs are prohibitive," Mix said.
The most recent sell-off of a local school property was completed in November when the Immigrant and Multicutural Services Society took over the former Computime building at 1270 Second Ave., which formerly housed alternative education programs. That building sold for $860,000.
School districts retain control of only 25 per cent of the proceeds of a sale. The other 75 per cent cannot be spent without approval from the education minister.
n As of last weekend, Mix was still awaiting word from the government whether the province's 60 school districts would be able to spend the three days of teachers' wages saved during the Monday to Wednesday strike two weeks ago.
SD 57 has 730 full-time equivalent teachers and about 800 teachers in total throughout the district. Mix said their lost wages during the walkout saved the province close to $324,000 each day.
