We are not sure whether the new plans qualify as a “downtown” elementary school, but the idea remains intriguing.
On Thursday, Vancouver Public Schools officials revealed a proposal for an elementary school on the former site of the Vancouver Community Library, at 1007 E. Mill Plain Blvd. That location is one block east of Interstate 5 and is adjacent to Memory/Mill Plain Park.
The plan is to create a magnet school for kindergarten through fifth grade, similar to the district’s Vancouver School of Arts and Academics or Vancouver iTech Preparatory School, with the new facility focusing on arts and innovation. The school was included in a $458 million bond passed by voters in February 2017, calling for the replacement of eight schools, construction of three new schools, and major renovations to five facilities.
In January, officials announced preliminary plans for a building along C Street downtown, just south of the Vancouver Community Library. Killian Pacific, which owns that property, had offered it to the district at half the market value as a donation, but parking at the smaller site proved to be a roadblock. “Because of the limitations of the site being within the (downtown) core, it pretty much necessitated underground parking,” Todd Horenstein, the district’s assistant superintendent of capital facilities, told The Columbian.
The downtown site was enticing, with proximity to the library and the heart of the city offering enhanced educational opportunities. But we also could see drawbacks to placing a school on a small parcel that has limited parking and heavy traffic while sitting within a stone’s throw of Interstate 5. If district officials believe the new proposal would better serve students and would represent better stewardship of taxpayer dollars, we trust their judgment.
Meanwhile, some questions remain, in addition to whether the new proposal will prove feasible. Primary among them is the future of the parcel south of the community library. When the building opened in 2011, there was the promise of a parking garage eventually being added. We’re still waiting. The main library is a beautiful facility that serves the community well, but parking is limited and requires a bit of a walk to the entrance, making access more cumbersome than it should be.
With development quickly filling open spaces in the downtown core and with the area increasingly bustling, the open spot along C Street stands out. So does Block 10 catty-corner of Esther Short Park, but city officials are working on plans for a mixed-use development that will include a grocery store.
The desirability of downtown space has made it difficult for the school district to secure a location. Through the middle of the 20th century, public schools in urban areas were common throughout the country, but that changed as commercial interests dictated that the land was more valuable for other purposes and as population increasingly moved toward suburbs.
An elementary school near downtown would add to a revitalized city core and would provide strong educational opportunities for students from throughout the district. Proximity to the park and its facilities for soccer, baseball and track offer one advantage over the previously proposed site, and the larger parcel of land would leave district officials with more options for construction.
Overall, the thought of a new elementary school continues to reflect how the Vancouver Public Schools district is working to better serve students.
