Audience vents at high school info meet

Audience vents at high school info meet

from the Royal City Record, January 13, 2010

EXCERPT:

The presentation from Malmgren and Alkins was meant to offer an update to the public on the plans for three schools in New Westminster: an elementary school, middle school and high school.

Instead, it turned into more of a public venting session for frustrated parents, Mercer Stadium supporters, the Massey Theatre camp and concerned Chinese-Canadians.

Former NWSS drama teacher Fionna Bailey tackled the city question head-on. She asked if there were any representatives from the city at the meeting and if the city had been invited.

"We gave them notice we were meeting," Alkins told her.

"Shouldn't we all be consulting with the city, the parks and the school board?" asked Bailey.
The crowd applauded her comments.

Bailey said she heard that the city hadn't been invited.

Board of education chair James Janzen said "the city made it clear that it wasn't going to be involved."
"This is just an information session," he said. "I just hope the next meeting will be a joint meeting."
Bailey also took issue with the district's presentation, saying it depicted Massey Theatre in a negative light by detailing what she considers an inflated cost to upgrade the facility.

"Why are you being so negative?" she asked. "Is it because you want Massey torn down? ... The Mercer and Massey are not seen as community assets but as constraints."

Malmgren said there was no intention of seeing the Massey torn down by providing information about the $18-million cost to upgrade the theatre.

"We tried to put forward information," he said.

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New Westminster’s heritage buildings face modern challenges : Kwantlen Chronicle

New Westminster’s heritage buildings face modern challenges : Kwantlen Chronicle

EXCERPT:

[Massey Theatre executive director Jessica] Schneider believe the school district was issuing threats to both the theatre and the city. “The school district was trying to get the city to swap the theatre with the [rest of their property], and they kind of put out the threat like, ‘We’ll just build on the theatre site unless someone gives us something else to work with.’ It’s a very political hot potato,” she said. “The [actual] issue is that because New Westminster is the oldest, first part of Metro Vancouver, it’s completely built from one edge to the other. There’s no space left to expand as density increases. This is just the beginning of an issue that’s going to face everybody eventually.”

Unlike the NWHPS, Schneider said that keeping the Massey Theatre alive doesn’t make the multi-purpose civic centre obsolete.

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Mayor says city won't lose track or field - The time-out corner

Mayor says city won't lose track or field - The time-out corner

EXCERPT:

As far as the future of Massey Theatre, which the district has said it cannot afford to maintain once the new school is built, Wright said the future of the theatre “will come to down to what the people want."

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Save the Massey before it's too late

Save the Massey before it's too late

by Fionna Bailey

EXCERPTS (my emphasis):

It seems to me that there are three stakeholders in the unfortunate situation at which we have arrived for the property bounded by 10th Avenue and Eighth Avenue, and Sixth Street and Eighth Street which is currently owned by the city and the school board.

1. The school board who owns half of the property, in the name of the citizens of New Westminster, and they need a site to build the new high school.
They also need a site unencumbered by a cemetery. Currently the Massey is situated on the east end of the school board part of the property.

2. The city owns the other half of the property, in the name of the citizens of New Westminster, on which is located the Mercer Stadium, which is used by the citizens and students of New Westminster.
It must not be forgotten that the whole of the four-block property was once owned by the city until a land swap was undertaken with the school board for half of the property to enable the city to build the current city hall on its present site.

3. The third stakeholder is the citizenry of New Westminster, who really are the owners of the property, and who elect both the school trustees and the city councillors to manage the buildings and property in their name and on their behalf (and their children's and grandchildren's behalf), both now and into the future. This fact is often overlooked by the first two stakeholders.

…

It is obvious to all and sundry who make up the third stakeholder position that a solution cannot be found to a problem of this complexity unless all the stakeholders are actively and enthusiastically participating in the process to find a solution to save the Massey Theatre from demolition - demolition that will destroy a $60-million building from our heritage and from our children's and grandchildren's future. Sixty million dollars that will not be found from anywhere else to build another comparable theatre.
…
Part of the solution has to be a joint willingness to totally rethink the site, for the city to own the land that the theatre sits on, and for the Massey Theatre Society to manage the Massey on behalf of the community.

A solution that includes the above will allow the Massey Theatre Society to raise funds federally, provincially and municipally, as well as from private donors.

I would suggest to all the citizens of New Westminster that they let the city and the school board know, in no uncertain terms, that all parties must come together and make saving the Massey Theatre happen now.

Tomorrow will be too late, after the wrecker's ball has slammed into the Massey crushing it forever.

Fionna Bailey was a longtime theatre teacher in New Westminster.

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New Westminster News Leader - School project getting more complicated

New Westminster News Leader - School project getting more complicated

EXCERPT:

Mercer Stadium is also considered as a possible location for the school. Owned by the city, it is more than an artificial turf field, track and stands, said Farhan Lalji, a New West resident and coach of the NWSS Hyacks football team.

“Mercer seats 1,800 people, it’s a unique venue and it’s a perfect size,” said Lalji. “Every time we play a school at our place, they tell me, ‘God I wish I had a place like your place,’” he said.

But, he argues, Mercer is more than a football venue.

“It’s not like football is more important than a new school—I’m not naive enough to think that. But at the same time, that is a facility that adds to the fabric of our community,” he said.

“Whether it’s Massey Theatre or Mercer Stadium, why do we need to lose one to gain one? I don’t understand that.”

Earlier this week Lalji sent out an email to those involved in football and other sports encouraging them to attend today’s meeting, which runs from 10 a.m. to noon at the NWSS library.

Bill Chu with the Canadians for Reconciliation said his concern is that part of the property identified as the old Chinese cemetery and potter’s field is not protected by the provincial Cemetery Act. There are few burial records for the property.

“There are plenty of people buried there that we don’t know about,” he said. “It would be like digging up Ocean View or Forest Lawn cemeteries.”

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‘Not at Mercer,’ coach says

‘Not at Mercer,’ coach says

EXCERPT:

The New Westminster Hyacks Football coach plans to tackle any plans that may involve moving or tearing down Mercer Stadium to build a new high school.

Farhan Lalji … wrote in the e-mail.
"There is no question that the building of a new high school in New Westminster is a huge priority, and the fact that it has taken this long is an embarrassment in our wonderful city. Nonetheless, Mercer Stadium is not where this school belongs."

Mayor Wayne Wright has said that the school district promised the city that if Mercer Stadium were to be used as the site for a new school, a track and field would be replaced on a different location. "The district promised if anything is changed, fields would be done first, so nobody will be without a field," Wright told The Record last month. "We are not going to be without anything we've had in the past."

But Lalji doesn't seem convinced that the assurance of a new track and field would be enough. He wrote that "any promise to adequately replace it is a pipe dream. "Let's not take away two venues as unique and important to the fabric of our community as Mercer and Massey," he wrote.

"They benefit thousands of residents. There are other options to make this school a reality for the students of New Westminster in a timely fashion."

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Public Information and Workshop Sessions on the Capital Project for NWSS

Public Information and Workshop on Capital Project for NWSS 
Sat. Jan. 9 from 10 am - 12 noon NWSS Library 
835 Eighth St., New West. PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUESTED capitalprojects@sd40.bc.ca or 604-517-6240

School District 40 heard that public consultation is needed for the rebuild of NWSS and the fate of the Massey Theatre!

Call, register, show up, listen, express your opinion.