The School District 69 (Qualicum) board has settled on a new name for the former Parksville Elementary School.
As of this summer, the site will be known as the Craig Street Commons.
The decision was made at the district’s board meeting on Tuesday, April 25. Board members accepted staff’s recommendation on the name, said superintendent of schools, Rollie Koop.
He said the name fits in with the board’s policy on naming, requiring strong historical and geographical connections, and it also avoids much-used words like ‘place,’ and ‘centre’.
“The Craig name is a nice fit for us because they were early community builders, both of whom had connections to education and their name has also been lent to Craig Bay and Craig’s Crossing, so it bridges both the historical and geographical expectations that the board holds,” said Koop.
According to Koop’s memo to the board, brothers James and Robert Craig were local pioneers, one of whom was a teacher, while the other was the builder and founder of the Montrose School in Parksville.
The decision came through after possible tenants for the site raised interest in renaming it, said the memo.
Re-branding is expected to help tenants in communicating their services to the public.
The school, along with the former Qualicum Beach Elementary, Winchelsea Elementary, and French Creek Community School ceased holding SD69 classes more than two years ago, said Koop, after an evaluation showing a surplus of school space in the district. Qualicum Beach elementary has since been renamed Qualicum Commons and has proven a successful flagship, with multiple full-time tenants, for the model the district wants for the public spaces.
Since its closure as a public school, the former Parksville Elementary has had the Regional District of Nanaimo as a tenant, providing recreational services, and several preschool and daycare services are also operating there.
“One of the things that’s at a real premium in our community is daytime gym space,” said Koop. “And so the kinds of spaces where you can host recreational activities are hard to come by.”
So far, the board has shown no interest in selling the property, but plans to maintain it as a community asset, he said. The hope is renting the site to tenants will pay for its upkeep, much as Qualicum Commons has achieved.
“If we can generate revenue, that’s great. That’s not our intent,” Koop said. “It’s simply to keep a presence in the buildings, keep them operational, keep them contributing to the community.”