4 - Friday, April 3, 1992 - North Shore News Hillside issue fostering separatism MONDAY'’S WEST Van- couver School Board meeting could be explosive. Dramatic. Entertaining. You could sell tickets, 1 said. Doug Player laughed convincing- ly. Maybe thought seriously: Hmmm, if it could help us in cut- ting back $2.1 million from our budget... West Vancouver’s school super- intendent is in the (Warning! Cliche ahead!) eye of the storm over our quaint municipality’s momentous question: A new school on Caulfeild Plateau — to be or not to be? Not to be, say the highly energetic Irwin Park Parent Group and its sympathizers — not if it means tearing down the pres- ent school, Hillside, in the 2000- block Queens. Yes, to be, says another group in the western part of our blessed village, a group now struggling to catch up to the well-organized critics of the board’s plan. (One of its members phoned my wife even as | wrote these words, identifying herself as a Gleneagles school mom and warning — | eavesdropped — that a ‘‘small vocal group’’ was jeopardizing the Caulfeild plan.) The issue has teen well reported. Broadly, the critics, in- cluding the [rwin Park parents and the Concerned Taxpayers for Public Accountability in School Administration, argue: The public wasn’t properly in- formed about the board decision to tear down Hillside and build the proposed school at Caulfeitd Plateau, learning about the issue only through a news story in the North Shore News. ft’s ridiculous to tear down one school and replace it with another (both are for Grades 7 to 9) and especially for the reasons the board gives. The board’s financial figures are, if not cooked, wrong. The sale of the Hillside site for a resi- dential development is resisted — more local traffic, ess upen space. The whole venture is specutative, based on dubious estimates of tot value in the Hillside area, and bonkers, though the critics are too polite to use the word, insert lest strip Trevor Lautens GARDEN OF BIASES Also: the school board members, they say, with the ex- ception of Margot Furk and pointedly not excluding its leader, Barbara Howard, is meekly sitting in the palm of superintendent Player’s hand. The Ambleside and Dundarave Ratepayers Association aiso op- poses the Caulfeild school, advis- ing that the board’s Inglewood site — leased to the YMCA for a token $1 a year — would be more suitable: closer to public transit, more central, and nearer the gen- eral traffic flow. The status of the Y deal opens a pretty fair side grievance in itself, one that was thrashed through by the board and municipal coui. * in the last week or two. Which is: that our school boa: in effect subsidizes a large part ot the municipality's recreational ac- tivity. Generous, but not the board’s responsibility. (The Y arrangement has a ‘special irony: while the board in effect allows the Y use of its In- glewood property for nothing, the Y in turn is picking up cash from its Marine Drive site which it leases to the Royal Bank.) Doug Player is in the middle of the Hillside/Caulfeild argument — trying to stickhandie its way through it as only a part of the board’s $31 million redevelopment plan. For example, the board is also in the throes of reopening Eagle Harbor School, which has been a highly popular recreational centre since the mid-1980s when the 46 The whole venture is speculative and bonkers, though the critics are too polite to use the word. 99 school was closed because the student population declined. The present plan is to install a couple of trailers for recreational use when the school reopens in September. Baffled? Uncertain what side to take? It gets more complicated listen- ing to Player’s position. He says that Hillside would have to be renovated if Caulfeild isn’t built, and that in the long run that route would be costlier, not cheaper. The board is also awaiting a report from Moodie Consultants, which is independently assessing the disputed value of the Hiliside site as a residential development. There’s another joker in the deal. An offshore computer com- pany, which he won’t identify by name because of the ‘‘delicate’’ negotiations, is proposing to equip the new Caulfeild school with a state-of-the-art comprehensive computer system — free. It would use it as a showcase for other schools. Any dea! would have to be completed by Jan. I, 1993. Player can’t reveal its name but allows that it’s Japanese and is ‘‘comparable to IBM"’ — which is pretty heavy territory. (I'd guess based on a remark by IPPG co- vice-chairman Catharine Szibbo, that it’s Sony.) Another feature of the pro- posal: adjoining or combining recreational facilities, and a dual-use school cafeteria and public auditorium — instead of the usual doubling of the gym as an auditorium. That hurts the sensitive gym floor, you know. Whom does he see as the oppo- nents of his plan? First, parents of kids who will have to go a little farther to school. Second, some Caulfeild residents who don’t want a schoo! in their area. (Law of political chemistry: for every NIMBY there’s an equal and opposite YIMBY.) Third, citizens of our iliustrious municipality who simply dislike change. ead . bop CARNIVAL 12 Week Short Season Summer Leagues Starting in May! But you want my opinion —- dying to hear it, right? So far ?’'m withholding it, on the ground of conflict of interest: Caulfeild, when my incredibly young children are ready for Grade 7, would be a lot more convenient for us. More important, though, is an underiying fear: This argument threatens to divide the community geographically, between its western, largely pro-Cauifeild part and its eastern, largely pro- Hillside part, at the formal dividing line, 31st Street. Do I see the looming threat of a separatist movement? A Republic - of West West Vancouver pitted against a Kingdom of East West Vancouver? Muskets and rattling |. teacups along the border? Well, 1 wouldn’t rule it out. ; Pretty dynamic place, you know.. CRN ES Os call 926-7333 ; BRUNSWICK LIONS GATE LANES 1080 PARK ROYAL, W. VAN. | Our organization is pleased to be making a presentation to the B.C. Housing Management. — Commission to bring an Affordable Housing Project to your community. IF YOU NEED AFFORDABLE HOUSING CALL NOW 857-2008 CALL COLLECT 8:00 A.M. - 8:00 P.M. (Monday to Friday) It is important that we prove the need in our community for housing. SO PLEASE CALL NOW. 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