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BUILDING SCHOOLS IN WEST VANCOUVER .EI>u^r.ciara'/C 5'c/:oe>/ ,v, i ? 2- at its next, it informed $5,000 to build a school, four lots of about three Miss Mary Reid was the first school teacher in West Vancouver. She had bee hired by the North Vancouver School Board, and when a separate West Vancouver was created, one of the first acts of the new West Vancouver Board was to continue her employment. But she never taught in a room built for teaching. She and her 19 students were housed in the Presbyterian Church in the southeast corner of 18 Street and Marine Drive. That first Board in 1912 must have been completely sure that West Vancouver would grow, and that to grow it v/ould need schools, good schools. At its very first meeting on 10 April 1912, it created ---- a Sites and Building Committee, Council that it would require $20,000 to buy sites At going prices, $20,000 would buy three or per-to four acres - all that for a population of 700. and and haps Nevertheless, By-law No. 5 passed on 6 June 1912 and authorized the borrowing of the $25,000 the Board wanted. The 700 residents apparently had as much confidence in West Vancouver as the Board. The Board immediately purchased three pieces of land, two in rather surprising places. The 4.25 acres which comprise S.W. Va D.L. 1080 lie north of Upper Levels and east of 11 Street. The 3.05 acres of S.E. ’A D.L. 1074 lie north of Inglewood and west of 3 Street. Neither was in the populated area of West Vancouver which paralleled the coast between Hollyburn and Caulfeild. Either the Board anticipated the direction of growth or tried to influence it. The third site is identified in the Board minutes as the Gintzburger lots in Block 5. Mr. Gintzburger did own land in D.L. 237 which is the area on which Hollyburn School now sits. The Board now had land but had made no decision on what kind of school to build or where to build it. Chairman Lawson recommended an eight room building (which would permit a graded school) on D.L. 1058, the site of Pauline Johnson. The Board chose to put the options before the ratepayers in a plebiscite. Would they prefer: (a) a graded school on Gordon Road, corner of Inglewood (D.L. 1058) OR (b) Two two roomed schools, one of D.L. 237 (the Hollyburn site), and the other at Dundarave. The public did not wait for the plebiscite to express opinion. The West Vancouver Raterpayers' Association, meeting in Vancouver (which says something about West Vancouver, then and now) voted unanimously for the two schools concept. The parents of the 19 students already enrolled also supported the idea of two schools, saying separate schools on D.L. 237 and D.L. 1058 would be better than one school on either of the sUes. The plebiscite, counted on