NORTH VANCOUVER, BC-A small Christian school faces an ongoing battle to lease space in two public elementary schools, despite a growing number of empty classrooms and a school district that is desperately short of money.

"That would be a win-win situation for both the district and us," says David North, principal of Lions Gate Christian Academy.

"But the schools' parents, the teachers and the union are absolutely, totally, violently opposed. They have all said, ‘Do not share schools. Close schools, lease them out, sell them-but don't share them.'"

Founded nine years ago, the independent school has seen its enrolment grow from 15 to 120 students. By contrast, the latest projections for the North Vancouver School District are that it will lose 350 children per year for at least the next 10 years.

This is also expected to translate into an operating budget shortfall of $7.5 million over the next three school years.

As a result, the board last month voted to begin public consultations on closing down four elementary schools at the end of June. Their fate will be decided on March 2.

North says district administrators and most trustees have been "very, very receptive" to the idea of a private school sharing public school property.

They had even tentatively settled on the two schools where Lions Gate would re-locate as of October.

But those plans were derailed when the district took the proposal to the parents of the children in the two schools.

Says North, "Everything blew up as soon as the [North Vancouver Teachers Association] union got wind of it."

"This is segregation and it's not what I want to teach my kids," one parent complained, according to The Province.

"Going down this road will, in the future, severely jeopardize the public education system," added Chris Dorais, the only trustee against the proposal, the North Shore News reported.

In his view, public and private schools are in competition. "Quite frankly, as school trustees, we are elected to stand for the public education system, and the private education system is a threat to the public education system," he said.

Different problems

NVTA president Shirley Stearnes also worried about the fact that Lions Gate students would be wearing school uniforms. "So immediately on the playground, they will be seen as being different, which can create its own problems," she said.

North dismisses such concerns as illogical and uninformed. But he personally does not believe this opposition is motivated by anti-Christian bias-"although some people think it is."

The real motivation, he alleges, is political. "The union wants the independent schools wiped out, because they want those teachers to be part of the union, and they're not."

Still, indicators are that the board will eventually approve some sort of lease arrangement with Lions Gate, especially given the district's financial woes.

One of 14 recommendations to the board to try to cut costs and boost revenues is that it "aggressively seek out leases for underutilized classroom space."

"We have to do all of this and more," says trustee Vickie Vinaric.

"We are very open to leasing to an independent school," adds trustee Cindy Silver.

"It would seem to me, anyway, to be discriminatory to refuse to lease to a school simply because they have a religious affiliation. I think there would be a human rights complaint if we were to refuse, just because it was a religious school."

North, who spent 32 years in the Vancouver public school system, hopes people will come to at least tolerate his private school as a partner with the public schools in the education of their children.

"Our stance is that we teach the same curriculum that they do and we do as good a job as they do. We're not saying that they're not doing a good job," he says.

"Ours is education-plus-the faith-based school. And parents want that, the teaching from the Christian worldview."