Selkirk College plans to add a two-year licensed practical nursing program now that it has acquired the Greater Trail Community Centre, its longtime home in the city.
As part of the arrangement, the provincial government will invest $1 million to upgrade technology and classroom spaces in the building.
Selkirk has been leasing campus space in the building for more than 25 years. By buying the building from the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary for $1, the college says it will be able to use space more efficiently between its campuses, relieving pressure on the Castlegar campus.
The Trail campus is presently home to academic upgrading and development, continuing education and workforce development, digital fabrication and design, health care assistant and other programs.
“The number of students and the delivery of programs and services at the Trail campus is growing,” Selkirk’s new president Maggie Matear said in a news release.
“We are excited to have an opportunity to continue to build on the success of the Trail campus, work with the other long-term tenants to develop courses and programs that will enhance the educational landscape in the heart of this wonderful city.”
In addition to the new nursing program, expected to begin in the winter of 2023, the campus will support student collaboration on advanced manufacturing and materials applied research at Selkirk College’s Technology Access Centre, located in Trail’s Glenmerry neighbourhood.
The transfer also includes those portions of the building that Selkirk College has not been using, including the Bailey Theatre, VISAC gallery, seniors centre, and gymnastics club.
Matear says all of those tenants will remain.
“We are a community college, so to me it makes great sense to have our campus as part of a cluster of community service providers,” she says.
“This is a fabulous old building. It’s got a long history of offering community capacity building and programs to the community, so I think it’s a great blend of service offerings out of this building.”
Kootenay West MLA Katrine Conroy, a Selkirk alumna herself, explained that without the transfer, the province would not have been able to provide funding for the upgrades.
“Government has a policy where they will fund facilities you own when it comes to grants for post-secondary education,” she said. “Now that Selkirk owns it, government can contribute dollars to the upkeep.”
Conroy also noted that she had been meeting with outgoing Selkirk president Angus Graeme for years on the building’s transfer.
“This gift, and the community spirit behind it, will ensure Selkirk College remains a permanent local fixture as the Greater Trail Community Centre’s new owners and stewards,” said RDKB chair Linda Worley in the release.
The oldest portion of the building, which is home to the Selkirk campus, was built in 1923 as a high school and was renovated and expanded in the 1930s. Following the opening of J.L. Crowe Secondary in 1952, it was retooled as a junior high school, which closed in 1983.
After sitting vacant for a few years, and a multi-million dollar renovation, it reopened in 1988 as the Greater Trail Community Centre.