An online survey to gather feedback on options for an expansion and seismic upgrade at Sundance-Bank Elementary — including demolition of the adjacent Bank Street School — will continue until Wednesday.
The Greater Victoria School District survey began Aug. 7, the same day an open house was held at the Bank Street property, located in the South Jubilee neighbourhood near Oak Bay Avenue.
Sundance-Bank Elementary is in an annex building that dates back to 1967, while the former Bank Street School next to it was built in 1910 and shut down in 1975, when it became home to the Victoria College of Art for many years.
Both buildings are rated at the highest level of seismic risk.
Three options have been proposed, with all including an increase of 10 classrooms from the current five to reach a capacity of 240 students, a neighbourhood learning centre and on-site child care.
Information collected from the public will also help prioritize the features of the neighbourhood learning centre.
The school project stems from projections of growing enrolment in the school district.
The prospect of the demolition of Bank Street School doesn’t sit well with the Hallmark Heritage Society, which also raised concerns when talk of its demolition came up in 2020.
“The society feels that the building is eminently saveable and I believe they have a consultants’ report that says so,” said Ken Johnson, the society’s past-president.
He said the building has an Edwardian style, which is typical of many older schools in cities around B.C. The society said the building was designed by David Coupar Frame, who also designed Victoria’s Chinese Public School and worked for a time with Francis Rattenbury on the Empress Hotel.
District superintendent Deb Whitten said Bank Street School “isn’t in a condition to have as a school.”
She said size is a prime factor, since it has too few classrooms and wouldn’t be able to provide “a modern learning environment.”
Concern about demolition was among the range of views expressed at the open house, as was excitement at having a new school in the neighbourhood, said acting associate superintendent Sean Powell.
“There as a real mix of feedback that we received,” he said.
The former Sundance Elementary School was located in the annex at the Bank Street site and shut down in 2014 as a result of budget cuts, before being reopened in 2015 as part of École Victor-Brodeur. The school district entered into a five-year lease with the Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique — B.C.’s francophone-education authority.
French classes were then relocated to a modular facility built on the grounds of Braefoot Elementary, and Sundance-Bank Elementary was opened at the site for the 2020-21 school year with kindergarten classes.
Sundance-Bank has since grown gradually with a grade added each year, and will end up as a kindergarten-Grade 5 school.
The following three options are presented in the survey:
• Option 1: Expand Sundance-Bank Elementary onto adjacent grounds and erect a 13-metre-high safety barrier around the Bank Street School building. This option will impact Garry oak trees and make the school’s playing field smaller.
• Option 2: Demolish the Bank Street School building and expand Sundance-Bank Elementary by bringing in modular units. There will be some impact to Garry oaks, but natural play areas will remain and the modular units will mean less construction time.
• Option 3: Demolish the Bank Street School building and expand Sundance-Bank Elementary to where the building used to be. This will have the least impact on Garry oaks and provide more natural play space.
Among the choices for amenities put forward for the neighbourhood learning centre are adult evening classes, activities like billiards and ping pong, a community kitchen and performance space.
The project has support from the Ministry of Education, and the school district has a September deadline to submit a “project definition report” to the ministry that includes working with an architect on the three options.
The survey runs until 4 p.m. Aug. 21 at forms.office.com/r/Xz1r6Hasx1 or sd61.bc.ca.
