Two published prices for one standing building

Two school buildings on Kingsway have stood empty since 2016. The district has published what they cost to keep and what they would cost to repair. It published them twenty-nine months apart, in reports written for different decisions.

The two figures.

The report of the Superintendent to the special board meeting of 17 December 2025 states, under Maintenance Costs, that the vacant buildings have cost roughly $65,000 per year, or $650,000 to date¹. The Facilities Planning Committee report of 7 June 2023 estimates $8 million to $10 million to repair the fire damage and the subsequent vandalism damage².

The two answer different questions: one prices holding the buildings as they stand. The other prices returning them to a usable condition. A body deciding what to do with the site is weighing both.

When each figure entered the record.

The repair range was published on 7 June 2023. That report carries no holding-cost figure at all². The holding pair first appears in the 2025 cycle: in the information session slides of 28 October 2025³, and then in the closure report of 17 December 2025¹.

The interval between the two publications is 874 days⁴, two years and five months.

What the arithmetic gives.

At roughly $65,000 a year, a total of $650,000 implies ten years of carrying⁵. Enrolment ceased in 2016, in the year of the August fire, and the closure carried on 18 December 2025, an interval of nine years and four months⁶. The published pair is stated as roughly and to date, so it reads as a rounded total rather than a ledger sum, and the division checks the record against itself and nothing more.

Against the repair range, the same annual figure runs a long way. The low end of the estimate equals 123 years of holding at the published annual rate, and the high end 154 years⁷. The total spent to date is between 6.5 and 8.1 per cent of the repair range⁸.

Those comparisons set a one-time capital estimate beside a recurring operating figure. No discounting is applied, no escalation is applied, and the repair estimate dates from June 2023 while the holding figure dates from the 2025 cycle. They establish scale, and they establish nothing about which course of action is cheaper.

What each figure covers.

Two published lists describe what the money buys, and the lists differ.

Maintenance appears in both. Groundskeeping and inspections appear in one. Sprinkler servicing and break-ins appear in the other. The same district, describing the same annual figure for the same buildings, publishes two lists with different contents¹⁹.

On the condition of the buildings, the December 2025 report states that unoccupied buildings are vulnerable to vandalism and graffiti and have ongoing issues with flooding of the ground floor¹.

What the record does not carry.

No year-by-year breakdown of the $650,000 is published. No dollar split across security, insurance, utilities, groundskeeping and vandalism repair is published. Insurance is named in neither published category list, so it should not be assumed to sit inside the $65,000.

The documents read for this piece are the special board meeting agenda of 17 December 2025 with its attachments, the information session slides of 28 October 2025, the rationale for closure page, the closure questions page, the engagement summary of 10 December 2025, the board agenda of 1 October 2025, and the Facilities Planning Committee agenda of 7 June 2023. The ledger behind the total appears in none of them, and it prints below as an open gate¹⁰.

A figure of this size stays off the disclosure schedule.

The scale of the annual figure is worth fixing against a published threshold. Under the Financial Information Act, remuneration is reported by name above $75,000. The district’s Statement of Financial Information for the year ended 30 June 2025 carries its schedule of remuneration from page 54 and its supplier payments over $25,000 from page 110¹¹. An amount of $65,000 falls below the naming threshold and sits inside the consolidated total.

On the district’s teachers’ salary grid effective 1 July 2024, Category 4 Step 1 is $61,175 and Step 2 is $64,068. Step 6, at $75,633, is the first step on that category that crosses the disclosure threshold¹².

This sets two magnitudes beside each other: the holding cost pays for a building and the grid pays a person, and the comparison implies no post and no substitution. What it fixes is the size of the number: the annual cost of holding these buildings sits at the level at which the province’s own disclosure rule stops naming things.

The site behind the figures.

The buildings stand on a site of about six acres, reported as 261,360 square feet, which is exactly six acres¹⁴¹⁵. That figure comes from broadcast reporting of the closure decision and is a secondary source.

Enrolment ceased in 2016 following the August fire in the main building. The catchment was adjusted in 2023 so that students disperse to other schools¹⁹. First and second readings were held on 17 December 2025 and third reading on 18 December 2025, carried on a vote of 5 to 3, with the report before the board proposing a closure date of 19 December 2025¹⁶. The site has not been disposed of. The francophone school authority requested acquisition in January 2024¹⁶.

Both figures were published by the district, which is the only reason either can be read here, and the earlier report was written for a different decision from the later one. It reads the documents named above as at 9 September 2026, and the ledger behind the running total remains open.

Both figures on every report about the site.

Both figures on every report about the site, each carrying its date and its coverage list, with the year-by-year ledger printed beneath the total.

The two figures already exist, and they were produced by the same district about the same buildings, and they were separated by 874 days and two reports. Printing them together, with a consistent list of what the annual figure covers, would let a reader see the whole question on one page instead of assembling it from two.

Neither figure changes by being printed beside the other. What changes is that the question they answer between them becomes readable in one sitting.

Every figure above carries its source and every calculation is shown. Start with the school nearest you.

The arithmetic behind these figures is shown in Sources.¹³

Sources

1. Vancouver School Board, Proposed Closure of Sir Guy Carleton Elementary School, report of the Superintendent, Special Board Meeting Agenda (Revised), 17 December 2025, page 3. The maintenance figure of roughly $65,000 per year or $650,000 to date, the category list under Maintenance Costs, the statement on vandalism, graffiti and ground floor flooding, the 2016 end of enrolment, and the 2023 catchment adjustment. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

2. Vancouver School Board, Facilities Planning Committee, Consideration of Closure of Sir Guy Carleton Elementary School, 7 June 2023. The estimate of $8 million to $10 million to repair the fire damage and subsequent vandalism damage, and that this report carries no holding-cost figure. ↩ ↩²

3. Vancouver School Board, Sir Guy Carleton closure information session slides, 28 October 2025. The first appearance of the roughly $65,000 per year and $650,000 to date pair in the 2025 cycle. ↩

4. Interval between the publication of the two figures: 874 days. 7 June 2023 to 28 October 2025 = 874 days, or two years and five months Measured from the Facilities Planning Committee report carrying the repair range to the information session slides carrying the holding pair. It measures publication dates, not the dates on which either figure was calculated. ↩

5. Years of carrying implied by the district’s own pair: ten. 650,000 ÷ 65,000 = 10 The report states roughly $65,000 per year and $650,000 to date. The division shows the two published figures are consistent with each other at ten years. It does not establish that any year cost $65,000, because no year-by-year figure is published. ↩

6. Interval from the fire to the closure vote: nine years and four months. August August 2016 to 18 December 2025 = 9 years, 4 months The fire occurred in August 2016 and enrolment ceased the same year. Third reading of the closure carried on 18 December 2025. The interval is shorter than the ten years implied by the published pair, which is consistent with a rounded total. ↩

7. The repair range expressed in years of holding: 123 to 154. 8,000,000 ÷ 65,000 = 123.1; 10,000,000 ÷ 65,000 = 153.8 A one-time capital estimate divided by a recurring annual figure. No discounting or escalation is applied, and the two figures were published 874 days apart. It fixes the relative scale of the two numbers and supports no conclusion about which course costs less. ↩

8. The running total as a share of the repair range: 6.5 to 8.1 per cent. 650,000 ÷ 10,000,000 = 0.065; 650,000 ÷ 8,000,000 = 0.081 The published holding total to date measured against each end of the published repair range. Both inputs are quoted figures and both are approximate as published. ↩

9. Vancouver School Board, Rationale for Closure. The second published category list for the annual figure: maintenance, security, inspections, groundskeeping and utilities. ↩ ↩²

10. Checked, not published. Vancouver School Board, the maintenance ledger for the vacant Carleton buildings, year by year and category by category [no public URL located]. Looked for and absent from public. The published record carries two aggregate figures only, roughly $65,000 a year and about $650,000 to date. No year-by-year series and no split across security, insurance, utilities, grounds or vandalism appears in the 17 December 2025 agenda package, the 28 October 2025 information session slides, the engagement summary of 10 December 2025, or any Facilities Planning package checked. Insurance is named in neither published category list, so it cannot be assumed to sit inside the figure. ↩

11. Vancouver School Board, Statement of Financial Information for the year ended 30 June 2025, approved through the Finance and Personnel Committee, 12 November 2025. The schedule of remuneration beginning at page 54, the schedule of supplier payments over $25,000 beginning at page 110, and that remuneration is reported by name above the Financial Information Act threshold of $75,000. ↩

12. British Columbia Teachers’ Federation, School District No. 39 Vancouver teachers’ salary grid, effective 1 July 2024. Category 4 Step 1 at $61,175, Category 4 Step 2 at $64,068, and Category 4 Step 6 at $75,633 as the first step on that category above the disclosure threshold. ↩

13. The annual holding figure against the disclosure threshold: 86.7 per cent. 65,000 ÷ 75,000 = 0.867 The Financial Information Act names remuneration above $75,000. The ratio places the size of the holding figure against that threshold. It compares a building cost with a reporting rule for pay and implies no post. ↩ ↩²

14. The reported site area in acres: six. 261,360 ÷ 43,560 = 6 An acre is 43,560 square feet, so the reported square footage is exactly six acres. The square footage comes from broadcast reporting and is a secondary source. ↩

15. Broadcast reporting of the closure decision, 18 December 2025 [no public URL located]. The site area of about six acres, reported as 261,360 square feet. This is a secondary source and the only figure in this piece that rests on one. ↩

16. Vancouver School Board, board decision record for Sir Guy Carleton, including the minutes of 17 and 18 December 2025 carried in the board agenda package of 28 January 2026. First and second readings on 17 December 2025, third reading on 18 December 2025 carried 5 to 3, the proposed closure date of 19 December 2025, that the site has not been disposed of, and the January 2024 acquisition request from the francophone school authority. ↩ ↩²