Province should back Vic High renovations

Re: “Put education before pricey preservation,” comment, June 28. The recent decision by the Greater Victoria School Board with regard to Victoria High School is sound in so many ways. As well as having clearly committed to providing a facility that will meet the needs of its present and future students, trustees have also recognized the more than 100 years of national heritage of the school on its present site. Trustees have committed to maintain what they can of the present structure. To have built a school of such stature and beauty in 1914 clearly demonstrates the importance of education to Victoria citizens at that time.

Since its inception, Vic High teachers and students have rewarded the vision of their benefactors with a clearly recorded history of producing top scholars, artists, athletes and noteworthy citizens, as well as provincial and national leaders.

Innovation and progress in architecture is not necessarily about creating new, but also about making adjustments to the old. As Victorians, we observe how the renovated South Park and Lampson Street schools enhance their communities. As Canadians, we value education, and these historical educational monuments exude this in the most vivid manner. The incredible vision of past citizens should not be “vandalized.”

Hopefully, our minister of education and our B.C. government will recognize the wisdom of the school board and see Vic High as an opportunity for rebirth and repurposing that must not be lost. Ken McCulloch Victoria

A memorial service at Vic High in 1920 to remember those who died in the First World War. A letter-writer says the school’s rich history and distinguished alumni merit funding by the B.C. government for renovations to preserve the 1914 building.