It's the dawn of a new era for Rutherford Elementary School, which is set for a September 2025 re-opening to help relieve ongoing capacity issues. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Alex Rawnsley

back in business

Rutherford Elementary set to re-open amid SD68 capacity crunch

May 25, 2023 | 9:11 AM

NANAIMO — It’s a new dawn for Rutherford Elementary school in the city’s north end.

The Board of Trustees for School District 68 unanimously approved the school’s re-opening, pending some conditions, for September 2025. The decision during their meeting on Wednesday, May 24 is a bid to relieve increasing capacity issues around the district.

Closed since June 2018, the largely dormant property was a frequent argument by community members whenever overcrowding in schools in Nanaimo was discussed.

“The reality is that we are a district that has capacity crunches in almost every single building and having another facility in use to support students and staff, it’ll help alleviate some of those pressures and will spread those pressures out as our communities continue to grow,” trustee Charlene McKay said.

Re-opening is contingent on a September 2023 student head count.

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A 2021 long range plan by the District suggested the Dover catchment would be 84 per cent over capacity by 2030 without any changes.

With the vote, trustees directed SD68 staff to create a school transition working group to set the wheels of re-opening in motion.

A host of options remain on the table for the make-up of the student population, including volunteer enrolment, formal catchment areas for certain grades, or a full K-7 school.

It’s expected the annual operating cost of Rutherford Elementary will be just over $900,000 based on 250-300 students attending.

Trustee Tania Brzovic said the key is to make Rutherford Elementary a sustainable venture.

“Once the school is re-opened, we really have to make sure we are doing work to make it successful because the closure of that school caused a lot of pain in that community, that neighbourhood, and it’s very important that we do this right.”

Brzovic added the timing of the re-opening won’t necessarily appease everyone but re-iterated the need to get the re-opening right.

“I know there are many who have wanted to see Rutherford re-open now or even in 2024 and I was one of those folks. After giving it consideration, I do understand staff’s logic and thinking, I do think we have to be very careful.”

Trustees initially threw their support behind the idea of re-opening of Rutherford in June 2022, however this vote was done with new Trustees elected in the most recent municipal election.

At the time, district secretary-treasurer Mark Walsh said a round of public consultation on the future of Rutherford made things abundantly clear.

“The feedback we heard, perhaps unsurprisingly because I know the Rutherford folks are quite a passionate group, were really pushing for the re-opening of the school,” Walsh said in June.

Costs associated with re-opening will be determined through the working group, however Walsh speculated last June around $450,000-$600,000 would be needed to open it for the 2023 school year.

During its closure, the school has been seldom used. However on occasion, Nanaimo Fire Rescue crews would use the facility for various training drills.

The school was the site of an infamous break-in and brief occupation in the fall of 2018 by of advocates demanding increased housing options for the city’s unhoused population.

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