1912 Arts and Crafts Yellow Schoolhouse at General Gordon Elementary May be Demolished as early as this week!! If you care about keeping heritage buildings in this city, please take 10 minutes to write a short letter. Ever since the Vancouver School Board announced that they wanted to demolish the charming little yellow wood-frame schoolhouse at Gordon Elementary, Kitsilano residents have been advocating for its retention. This building is historically significant to the site and in good condition. Recent developments made its retention appear hopeful but last week, Vancouver School Board staff reiterated their intention to demolish in the immediate future. Retaining the schoolhouse is doable and desirable because: 1. Kitsilano has been identified as a neighbourhood in urgent need of day care space and the provincial government has recently made funding available for renovations and other day care spaces. The yellow schoolhouse has been used for pre-school space for many years and would make an ideal day care location. The VSB in its own policies supports locating day care spaces on school grounds to create neighbourhood learning centres. 2. If the schoolhouse is demolished, the City will take a lane easement that will actually, according to recent analysis by a professional, result in less, not more, open space for the playground. Due to the available funding, retention of the schoolhouse will not cost the VSB any money. Nor will its retention need to delay the opening of the new school that is nearing completion. Surely in our City where so many private buildings are demolished, our own public government can retain their own heritage buildings. This month we lost two of our heritage schools: Sexsmith and Queen Mary. It's not too late to save this building. PLEASE SEND LETTERS TO THE VANCOUVER SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEES. ASK THEM TO DIRECT THEIR STAFF TO EXPLORE THE OPTIONS FOR RETAINING THE YELLOW SCHOOL HOUSE. Allan.wong@vsb.bc.ca Penny.noble@vsb.bc.ca Janet.fraser@vsb.bc.ca Patti.bacchus@vsb.bc.ca Mike.lombardi@vsb.bc.ca Fraser.ballantyne@vsb.bc.ca Joy.alexander@vsb.bc.ca