The future of Lumby’s Whitevale Elementary is up in the air.
The Vernon School District is looking for public feedback to a survey asking if residents support listing the site for sale.
The survey, available at https://forms.office.com/r/5gKKUwg4x4, also asks for other suggestions for the school.
Whitevale Elementary, located at 423 Whitevale Road, near Lumby, closed in 2006.
“After three days, as of Monday, May 6, over 350 responses had been submitted, which is a tremendous amount of engagement,” said School District 22 secretary treasurer Adrian Johnson.
“People sometimes ask if we have sufficient space at the schools in the area, J.W. Inglis Elementary and Charles Bloom Secondary. We do have sufficient space. Our projections are that enrolment at these schools will gently decline over the next 20 years. That comes as a surprise to people, given the number of young families moving to Lumby and the surrounding area.”
While young families are relocating to the Lumby area, the district explains that this is not resulting in growing school enrolment.
“Without that migration, about 63 births a year in the catchment area are needed to keep up J.W. Inglis Elementary’s current enrolment,” the district said. “There were only 45 such births in 2022. This steady stream of young families moving in offsets that shortfall, maintaining the current school age population.”
Keeping the Whitevale site as a school would cost money, which would need to be offset by reducing other services across the Vernon School District.
“If the site is better suited as a community centre or similar facility, selling the property could enable a dedicated operator to develop it for community benefit,” the district said. “The same applies for child care. For example, the school district sold the former West Vernon Elementary School to a child care provider in 2013.”
The survey remains open until 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday, May 28.
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