RIDGEWAY PRIMARY £CHOOL Neighborhood uproar may result of school portable im the removal RIDGEWAY Primary School Annex may have its new portable classroom removed if North Vancouver City Council asks North Vancouver School District 44 to survey area neighbors for their opinions on the recent in- stallation of the building on Council members decided to wait for further staff reports before taking any action, but said they were concerned. that many people.in the. neighborhood around the annex wante-? to see the portable remo:ed. : “*h is our understanding that the :chool board did not ap- prise the neighborhood of the propesed installation,’”’ City Director of Development Ser- vices Fred Smith said in a report to council. ‘‘They were not required to do so in order to receive a building permit.’’ . But prior to. Monday night’s council meeting North Van- couver ‘City Ald. Bill Bell said ‘(The portable) was poorly designed and poorly placed ... (and) there is no (traffic) light at the corner end children in Grades l and 2 are in danger.’ —NVC Ald. Bill Bell the munic:--lity erred when it allowed ti. -chool board to in- stall the p: .able classroom on the annex giounds without first canvassing ‘rea residents for their input Bell sa communiti: be told wi their neigh: “Other, and see a middle of vacant,’’ h Bell saiv: had been building si: chosen. “It was 1 -orly designed and poorly pla. ...The sch:olyard is almost + . being abl. to be used by kiu,....(and) the. is no (traffic) light at the corner and children in Grades 1 and 2 are in danger,’* he said. Ald. John Braithwaite said he was less concerned about the Monday night, have the right to is getting built in ‘hood. 2) people wake up -3e building in the hat was completely aid. if the community ‘nsuited, a better would have been Versatile Pacific Pursues ferry contract the school’s playground. NEWS STAFF placement of the portable, than with the fact that neighbors did not know about, or necessarily support, the construction of the portable. “The issue is that the neighborhood doesn’t want the building. If that’s the case, we have to look at the building,” said Braithwaite. According to the city building bylaw that deals with the in- stailation of temporary struc- tures on property, applications must be accompanied with “approval in writing of not less than 60 per cent of the property owners, any portion of whose lot lies within 200 feet of any portion of the lot to be used.”” But under current city policy, school portables are exempted from temporary building status. They are required to meet building bylaw regulations and receive approval from the advi- sory design panel, but they are not required to inform the sur- rounding community of their decision. In an Aug. 30 News story, residents living around the school complained that the por- table, which was placed in the building. 3 - Sunday, September 24, 1989 - North Shore News PRIMARY SCHOOL children file out of the portable being used ss part ef the Ridgeway Primary School Annex in North Vancouver. Some nearby residents want the portable removed, claiming the site was ill-chosen, and that people in the neighborhood should have been cozsulted as to the iocation of the 69 FORTABLES IN DISTRICT 44 Portables are not ideal, middle of the school’s playing field, was an eyesore that had ruined area views. A petition was taken up to oppose the portable’s installa- tion on its present site. But District 44 officials said that while they were not happy with having to put the portable on the Ridgeway Annex site, it was needed to accommodate an increase in school enrolment. School board chairman Don Beli said the $40,000 portable would likely only be on the site in its present position for the next year, depending on area enrolment. But at last Tuesday night’s school board meeting, the District 44 board agreed to make application to the municipal board of variance for permission to move the portable to a better site on the school property at a cost estimated at The board rejected the idea of moving annex pupils four blocks north to the larger Ridgeway elementary school or the suggested lease-back of part of the former Cloverleaf school. The issue will come before ci- ty council again, after a report’ has been filed by city staff. but they are necessary APPROXIMATELY 1,500 North Vancouver School District 44 students are being educated in portable classréoms this fall. The rooms are relatively comfortable and tie school district attempts to make them as attractive as possible, but portables have definite disad- vantages according to school board officials. District 44 School Superin- tendent Robin Brayne said because portables are separated from main school buildings, communication between staff and students in portables and the rest of the school is af- fected. Students in portables must also go outside, rain or shine, and enter main school buildings to join schoolmates for activi- ties, or, in some cases, to use washrooms. “Portables are not the build- ing of choice, but of necessity,’’ Brayne said. Including its outdoor school shop facilities, District 44 cur- rently uses 69 portables. The practice of using por- NORTH VANCOUVER School Superintendent Dr. Robin Brayne ... ‘‘Portables are not the building of choice, but of necessity.’? tables began as far back as the early 1980s, when student pop- ulations began to increase after going through a period in which they dropped significantly. Today there are portables at various locations throughout the district, and they are par- ticularly prominent at Ross Read Elementary, Larson Elementary and Sherwood Park Elementary. Although Brayne said the ideal solution would be to build permanent additions on to ex- isting schools, capital funding for such expenditures has been difficuit to obtain during the past decade. And the school district is philosophically against the alternative of moving students to other, less crowded schools. “There is a strong expecta- tion on the part of parents that their kids should go to the neighborhood school,’ Brayne said. Portables also make it easier for the district to respond quickly and_ efficiently to sud- den school enrolment fluctua- tions. NORTH VANCOUVER-based Versatile Pacific Shipyards Inc. has announced that it will pursue the $300 million con- tract to build two super ferries for the B.C. Ferry Corp. Versatile chairman Peter Quinn said in a prepared statement that he was speaking out to counter reports that B.C. shipyards would be unable to build the new major route ferries in time for the 1992 delivery date. “We are actively pursuing this project which, together with the plan- ned construction of the Polar 8 icebreaker, offers just the sort of sus-. tained employment in our industry that has been so sadly lacking in re- cent years,’’ Quinn stated. Versatile’s new vice-president of operations David Cassidy said Friday, Versatile was the only B.C. shipyard that could build the vessels for the 1992 delivery date. “There is no question that we can build them,” he said. ‘‘We badly need the work so we are putting the provincial government and the ferry corporation on notice...to consider us for the job.” He said a considerable amount of the ferry work would be done at Versatile’s North Vancouver yard if the company won the contract. Marine Workers and Boilermakers Industrial Union (MWBIU) secre- tary-treasurer Bill Scott said his union ‘‘welcomed the initiative of Ver- satile’’ in its announced eagerness to build the ferries. In a recent MWBIU presentation to the provincial government’s cabi- net committee on regional development, the union called on the govern- ment to support the neglected local shipbuilding industry. Versatile has built and undertaken major conversions for B.C. Ferries throughout the corporation’s 30-year history. The shipyard is currently constructing a °51.25-metre hydrographic survey vessel for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and two Type 500 search and rescue cutters for the Canadian Coast Guard. Versatile’s North Vancouver yard has been fully booked recently with ship repair work. The two new super ferries, each with space for 470 vehicles, will pro- vide added capacity on major ferry routes between the B.C. mainland and Vancouver Island. , :