Lake Cowichan’s A.B. Greenwell Elementary School is slated for demolition.
The school, which opened in 1969, has been closed since 2008, when concerns with mould contamination made it necessary to move students and staff to Yount Elementary School in Youbou — which has since been closed and sold by the Cowichan Valley School District.
Yount Elementary had already been closed in 2007 due to declining enrolment, but was reopened to accommodate A.B. Greenwell Elementary school students before permanent closure in 2013.
Further evaluation of A.B. Greenwell found that it was not economically viable to repair, and it also closed for good in 2013.
The Cowichan Valley School Board later successfully applied for demolition funds for A.B. Greenwell Elementary from the Ministry of Education, and has contracted the job to Milner Group Ventures Inc.
The school is on Crown land that will return to the provincial government. No plans for the site have been announced.
Preliminary work is underway and the demolition is scheduled to be complete by March 31.
The Cowichan Valley Schools Heritage Society says on its website that A.B. Greenwell school, which replaced the earlier Bridge/Bell Tower School, was named after Archie Greenwell, a Lake Cowichan pioneer who served 27 years as chairman of the Lake Cowichan School Board.
