School board tired of guessing game

The Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board doesn’t have the money to play a guessing game with Owen Sound council, the board’s top administrator says.

Education director Bruce MacPherson said the board wants clear direction from council on a compromise that would meet the city’s desire to adequately commemorate the original wing of St. Mary’s High School and allow the board to demolish the 1891 annex.

“It just doesn’t make any financial sense for us to keep saying: what about this and what about that? Because each time, with architects, etc., it’s costing us money. So now we’re just waiting to hear from city council on what it is that they would like to see,” MacPherson said in an interview.

The original St. Mary’s schoolhouse, now part of a much larger Catholic high school, was boarded up last November.

Sixteen months earlier council voted to block the school board’s plan to demolish the structure by moving to protect it under Ontario Heritage Act legislation.

The school board objected, saying the building is cost prohibitive to repair. The Ministry of Education paid for a $3.7-million addition at the opposite end of the school, but provided no money to fix the original annex.

The objection sent the matter to Ontario’s Conservation Review Board, which makes non-binding recommendations on heritage preservation.

But before proceeding to a full-blown hearing, the city agreed to give the school board a chance to entice council to withdraw its intention to designate with a plan to commemorate its historical significance.

The board failed to impress council last October with its proposal to preserve bricks and a stone name plate from the annex for use in a replica entranceway.

Board officials were sent away with the direction to improve the plan.

MacPherson said the school board has not been working on another plan. They have been waiting the last four months for clear direction from council.

“We were making presentations on things we were saying we would do and finally we said, ‘You tell us what you’re looking for.’ So that’s what we’re waiting for,” he said.

City manager Jim Harrold said both sides are “still talking.” A second Conservation Review Board pre-hearing is scheduled for March 29.

“We don’t have a problem with a hearing, but I think we’d all rather resolve the problem amongst ourselves without the need for a third party,” he said.

Coun. Jim McManaman, an outspoken critic of the demolition plan, said the board’s last proposal was “unacceptable.”

“In my mind, just speaking for myself, I’d like to see them come up with a plan to save the old 1891 portion of the school,” he said.

While the school’s expansion is great news, he said the city must work to preserve its heritage.

He said public buildings should be held to a “higher standard” than private properties.

Ideally, McManaman said the board and city should partner together to “make a case” to save the school. The two sides could search for funding opportunities and possible uses, he said.

He questioned whether the board tried to secure Ministry of Education funding to repair the original wing.

Ministry spokeswoman Patricia MacNeil said the Catholic board applied for “prohibitive to repair” funding to build an addition. It did not apply for renovation funding.