The Chilliwack school board has approved the $3-milion purchase of the Christ Lutheran Church Chilliwack, in order to eventually expand the footprint of Chilliwack Middle School.
The purchase involves a lease agreement, in which the school district will lease the Charles Street property back to the congregation while staff works on a plan to redevelop the site and integrate it into CMS. The lease-back agreement will be three to five years, according to district staff.
The plan was brought to the board June 17, and has been in the works for "some time," said board chair David Swankey.
The board had all three readings of the motion to purchase the church property, and a second motion dealt with the lease.
"This is a very rare opportunity," said Trustee Teri Westerby, noting that buying it now gives them a better market value than buying it years from now. The total purchase price would be $3,040,000. Financial details surrounding the lease were not included in the agenda.
"It's incredibly rare and deeply commendable for a group to make a decision like this that directly benefits the community," he said. "This is a powerful example of what partnerships and collaborations in education can really look like."
Members of the church congregation were in the audience at the meeting, and Westerby thanked them directly. He also noted later in the meeting that the church's values are in line with the values of the Chilliwack School District.
"It's just a perfect match," he said.
Trustee Margaret Reid noted that many people had come to her earlier in the day to comment positively about it, and that the deal is an "exemplification of the way community should work."
"It is what my understanding of ... religion and Christianity and community and faith," she said, adding that she's thankful the downtown property will be used for a good cause.
"This is a unique circumstance where leadership of the congregation reached out to us," Swankey said. "May every school be so fortunate as to have such good neighbours."
Trustee Richard Procee brought laughter to the room when he joked that he was "really proud" of being able to keep the deal a secret from his "developer friends" all this time.
"Leadership of the church approached the district regarding the site of the church in downtown Chilliwack," the staff report stated. "With growth in this area, the district foresees using the site for expansion of the existing school. This site represents one of the few potentially available sites in downtown Chilliwack."
The plan to build out Chilliwack Middle to incorporate the property will take several years. The current five-year capital plan includes requests for the funding for growth plans at both schools, and others, as well as new schools across the city. The middle school's current capacity is 525 with a current enrolment of 604 or 115 per cent. District staff anticipate that enrollment at the school will reach 692 (132 per cent) by 2028.
"It honours the generosity of the church to lease it back to them," Trustee Willow Reichelt added. "I'm really pleased about this opportunity that it's not an empty building while we get our ducks in a row."
The purchase will give the district access to the church's commercial kitchen, but the church will have priority access to the building during their lease, senior staff confirmed.
Christ Lutheran Church Chilliwack was established on January 18, 1940, according to the church's website. The original building was located at Victor and Cleveland Streets. The current building on Charles Street was dedicated by the church on May 16, 1971.
The site is .73 acres and includes the church and its parking lot, at 9460 Charles St. Both motions were approved unanimously, and the board took a break to meet and greet the members of the church who were at the meeting.
Also discussed at the June 17 meeting was an outlook report that states Chilliwack will continue to grow for the next 10 years, potentially bringing in 1,189 students to a school district that is already bursting at the seams. The district has a current "pent-up demand" for 1,355 spaces. The report states that by 2035, the district could be short by 2,544 seats, if expansions were not to continue.
In a press release following the board meeting, the distict noted that there have been 2,420 new student spaces added in Chillliwack since 2018. Those have been realized through the opening of Stit贸:s L谩:l茅m Tot铆:lt Elementary/Middle and Imagine High Integrated Arts and Technology, and expansions to G.W. Graham Secondary, Vedder Elementary and Promontory Heights Elementary.
Expansions at Sardis Secondary and AD Rundle Middle, and the construction of the new east side elementary school will add 1,200 spaces over the next two years, they stated.
The board also adopted its annual budget for next school year at the July 17 meeting, at $246,451,401. The budget balances estimated expenses to forecasted revenues, and use of accumulated surplus. It has to be submitted to the province for approval by the end of June.
