Pringle should have stayed a high school

A second high school on the Westside should be the new top priority in the school district’s capital plan, the school board was to hear last night.

That’s odd considering the Westside did have two high schools for many years — until the board in 2002 determined that was one too many. Now apparently, the decision makers of that day have been proven wrong.

Many people knew then the decision to close George Pringle Secondary School was short-sighted. Putting all Westside high school students in one school would surely be a strain on Mount Boucherie, people argued. It would require a lot more busing to shuffle Westbank students over to Lakeview Heights.

And most people knew the Westside was going to keep growing.

Even if Boucherie could handle the student load then, it would eventually burst at the seams with the region’s continuing growth.

But the board went ahead and closed Westbank Elementary, converted Pringle into an elementary school and decided one high school was all the area needed for its future.

It was the wrong decision, but in fairness school boards are forced to make these short-term budgetary decisions by provincial requirements that they always balance their books.

As a result, a school that might be needed 10 years down the road can’t stay open if it’s going to create a deficit now.

A reconfiguration of local middle schools is causing this latest crisis.

Starting in the fall, Westside middle schools will house Grade 6-8 students, like most middle schools in B.C.

Grade 9 students are to attend Boucherie, but as there are more of them than the high school can handle, Glenrosa Middle’s current Grade 8s will stay where they are for another year.

The Pringle and Westbank Elementary closures all those years ago were met with howls of protest. Many people knew it wasn’t good long-term thinking. They were right.