Vernon School District asked to vacate city-owned building

VERNON – The Vernon School District has been asked to vacate a city-owned building currently home to the Open Door Education Centre.

According to a memo from the superintendent’s office, the 29 Street building owned by the city and leased by the district is getting demolished next summer. The district has been asked to vacate the downtown building.

“Our secretary-treasurer is currently examining all options for relocating the program,” Superintendent Joe Rogers said in the memo.

Rogers will be meeting with Open Door and district staff to address the future space needs of the program, which is for students 17 and older wishing to complete their schooling in an alternate learning setting.

Rogers, and board of education chair Kelly Smith, were unavailable for interviews due to an out-of-town conference, Infonews.ca was told.

Vernon city councillor Catherine Lord says the district has until the end of the school year to vacate the building. As for why the building is being demolished, she says that information is not yet being released to the public.

“All I can say is everything is still in camera, except that we have asked them to vacate,” Lord says. “It’s to do with land and negotiations.”

She says the city has plans for the property, but wouldn’t go into details.

The city-owned, former New Delhi restaurant building next door is also set to be demolished. The property will be turned into a parking lot.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infonews.ca or call 250-309-5230. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.