The Capital Regional District’s (CRD) Salt Spring Island Parks and Recreation Commission (PARC) has approved in principle the CRD initiating formal discussions with School District 64 (SD64) to enter into a five-year lease agreement to operate the Salt Spring Island Middle School (SIMS) building as a community centre beginning in July 2022.
If an agreement between the CRD and SD64 is reached, the new community centre will be available for not-for-profit groups, recreation and public service providers to rent space based on PARC’s fees and charges guidelines.
An open house will be held at SIMS on Friday, Dec. 3 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. for interested potential users to view the available space. A call for expressions of interest to request space will be made following the open house.
The CRD has an established service budget for operating recreation facilities and says it could requisition additional funding in order to keep rental costs for not-for-profit user groups low. It also has facility booking software, online registration capabilities and staff trained in recreation programming, administration and maintenance of recreation facilities.
School District 64 trustees approved a partial closure of SIMS in September, with a full closure at the end of June 2022.
The decision to close SIMS was controversial when first proposed and resulted in a different configuration of grades at island schools.