Don’t believe ‘school site’ signs: division official

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This article was published 24/07/2009 (6151 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VINCE Mariani’s quiet summer ended abruptly this week when he had to play the villain who tells suburban homeowners they’re not getting a new school.

The River East Transcona School Division secretary-treasurer’s phone suddenly started ringing off the hook with people thrilled to see "proposed school site" signs go up in Canterbury Park and Harbour View South along with the division’s name and number for further information.

"There’s a great deal of excitement when they call — it’s me who bursts their bubble," Mariani lamented.

Existing schools nearby but outside the new developments have enough space to accommodate students from the two growing subdivisions for the foreseeable future, Mariani said.

The provincial government — not school divisions — decides when schools will be built, and it is the province that pays for them.

Developers must dedicate areas within subdivisions for schools, Mariani pointed out, but that does not mean that a school will be built.

However, Mariani said, if schools aren’t built and the division does not purchase the sites for possible future schools, the land in Harbour View South would go to the city by 2012 and in Canterbury Park in 2015, for other community uses.

He’s already left calls and is hoping to hear back from the developers to see if the signs can be amended with more information about the process.

One mother in Canterbury Park said she was ecstatic to see the sign this week on Edmund Gale Drive. Her child starts kindergarten in September, but it’s a long way to Harold Hatcher School, said the resident, who asked not to be identified.

"I just think it’s kind of wrong," said the woman, who phoned Mariani Thursday morning. "I’m a little upset. They shouldn’t be putting signs up if there’s no chance of a school."

Qualico land development manager Eric Vogan said he’ll be talking to Mariani, but said the signs are standard. "All of our signs do say, subject to board and provincial approval," Vogan said.

"We’re caught both ways," Vogan said. He doesn’t want people to think there will be a school built, but he also doesn’t want someone buying a home who’s unaware that the "park" next door could become a school.

The Doer government has been reluctant to build new schools in outlying suburbs, when overall enrolment is declining and there are empty desks available in older schools. Suburban developments around Winnipeg’s outer ring have green space set aside for schools which the government has shown no hurry to build.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca