Harewood School Faces Demolition

Could It Be Converted To Provide Homeless Shelter?

One would think that in a sane world it would be possible to use this existing facility to provide many units of social housing for a fraction of the cost to society to demolish this building and build new elsewhere. But given it has sat empty for many years, perhaps its useful days have simply passed.

The figure of $3 million has been floated as a cost for demolition, I presume after that the land would be sold and the funds go back to the province and not the school district.
It also raises the question of how much money is the school board wasting keeping unused buildings in their inventory? They seem to have an aversion to building new schools (remember they did over throw the $80 million the province had committed to new schools in Nanaimo) and they need to give an accounting as to the cost of their decisions.
Local school enrollment has been steadily dropping from the peak of 16,900 to the current enrolment of 13,600 and is expected to drop another 220 next year. Four portables were removed from Dover Bay School leaving a total of 10 of which only 6 are being used.
In view of falling enrollment, would logic not follow that the number of schools being kept open should also decline? I think for that to happen, the current school board will need a serious revamp come next election, as clearly this bunch has proven to be quite inept.