Dunster Dealings: Offers and Counter-Offers

By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

Prince George, B.C. -  The Dunster Fine Arts School Society has until noon tomorrow to submit a response to School District 57, as the wrangling continues over the fate of the elementary school.

The school was one of six slated to close at the end of the school year, as District 57's Board of Trustees was forced to deal with a $5.2-million dollar budget shortfall.

Parents in the small community have been trying everything they can think of to breathe new life into the school -- they occupied the building for a short time at the end of June, until forced out by a court order.  Earlier this month, they formed the society and put in a bid to buy the school and property it sits on, with the hopes of then having School District 57 provide the educational services.

Now, DFASS spokesperson, Chris Taylor, says members are reeling after receiving a 10-page counter-offer from the district that's asking fair-market value for the land. 

Taylor says District 57's $39.5-thousand dollar counter-offer is a far cry from the $10-dollar nominal offer they were encouraged to make by school district administration at a meeting back on June 14th.

Taylor says the society is in the process of trying to come up with a counter-offer of its own before tomorrow's noon deadline.  She says she spent all of today on the phone and had hoped to speak with Education Minister, Margaret MacDiarmid directly, but, with the minister away, Taylor is waiting to hear back from someone in her office.  The Dunster parent is also waiting to hear back from local MLA Shirley Bond.

Taylor says, "We just feel, really, that the board is being extremely unreasonable and we're all still really in shock over the counter-offer that they've put forth."

School District 57 Board Chair, Lyn Hall, is uncomfortable discussing details of the offers.  He says the Board decided it needed to counter the DFASS's original offer and include some guidelines it felt needed to be put in place.

"I certainly don't recall us saying that a $10-dollar amount would be what we're looking for," says Hall.  "And I don't want to get into a debate in the media with Dunster and I'm not going to use the media to negotiate."

"I don't want to speak specifically about whay may happen or what has happened -- the negotiating, I think, needs to take place between us and the Dunster Society."

Both Hall and Chris Taylor feel a face-to-face meeting between members of the DFASS, school district staff and board members would be helpful, but both say finding a date and time that works is a difficult task in the summer.

For his part, Hall says, "I think what's do-able is the sale of the facility.  I think we can come to an agreement there."  The educational component may be more challenging.  He says if the community chooses to use the Centre for Learning Alternative's distance education as a program that would work for the fall, but, Hall says, SD57 would not be able to offer up an educational component until the 2011-2012 school year.

Email | Print | Facebook | Twitter | Digg | Del.icio.us