School to be saved

New use for historic King George Public School expected after it closes in 2019

The historic King George Public School is going to be reused rather than torn down when it closes for good in 2019, a city official says – but he didn’t say exactly what the school board may have in mind for the building.

Ken Doherty, the city’s director of community services, gave two presentations on the future of King George Public School, at Hunter St. E. and Armour Rd. in East City, on Thursday – one for the city’s museum committee and another for the city’s arts, culture and heritage committee.

The idea was to update both committees on the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board’s plans to build a new school just east of King George; the idea is to open that new school in September 2019, at which time King George would be closed for good. The new school will merge King George and the nearby Armour Heights Public School.

Doherty said the 105-year-old King George Public School is expected to be saved and reused – not demolished, like the historic King Edward Public School (which was razed to make way for the new YMCA on Aylmer St.)

“No final decisions have been made, but I’m confident the school (King George) will be preserved and protected,” he told the museum board.

Doherty didn’t give any hints about what the school board may be considering, except to say it’s unlikely to be a community use (there had been talk of moving the Art Gallery of Peterborough into King George, for example).

“I’m confident there will be a solution that people will be pleased with,” Doherty said.

In February, city council agreed to giving the school board nearly half of the four-acre property next door to King George Public School; those are lands belonging to the Peterborough Museum and Archives.

In exchange, the public school board offered to help the city help pay for a new watermain and repairs to Museum Dr. (including a new sidewalk).

The museum lands are meant for the parking and driveways for the new school, site drawings show. Access for buses and other vehicles will be off Museum Dr.

Although the school board has hired a Toronto architect, there were no front elevations of the new school shown at the presentations on Thursday.

Coun. Lesley Parnell, a member of the arts, culture and heritage committee, said she was concerned about the look of the new school.

“It would be horrible if it were this modern school, stuck in this area (next to the historic King George Public School),” she said.

Doherty told her the new school is expected to be a “flagship building” in terms of environmental sustainability.

“Environmentally friendly is good, but will it look good too?” she asked. “It has to fit in with this area.”

Parnell had mentioned her concern earlier this year at a council meeting, saying she hoped the city would have the chance to weigh in on the design.

She said then she didn’t want too much of a glass-and-steel contemporary look because it would detract from both King George and the museum.

“It has to be appropriate architecture.”