A shocked Parksville resident told The NEWS about a dumpster full of books behind Parksville Elementary School.
Outgoing principal Mary Beil said that every library has a process to regularly get rid of books that are damaged, outdated, surplus or don’t fit the curriculum.
She said that they hadn’t done that aggressively in a few years and they are getting rid of more than usual because the school is closing.
They donated many books to the SOS, had boxes at the school for families to select from, and they are still moving “hundreds of boxes of books” to other schools, she said.
“There is a real sanctity of books, so this was really hard to do,” said district superintendent Rollie Koop adding that they provided each of the four closing elementary schools with a bin and are paying a premium to have the covers removed to recycle the paper.
He said it is unusual to get rid of that many books, but they simply don’t have the space in the new combined schools and they did contact service groups but nobody wanted them.
He said that on hearing the concerns he looked in the bin and found things like an encyclopedia from 1987 and a teacher’s resource book last signed out in 1997.