METRO VANCOUVER - Several Metro Vancouver school districts are looking to jettison empty schools in order to balance the books and help fund the replacement of other schools, with the latest example being the $41-million sale of Richmond’s Steveston secondary to Polygon Pacific Homes.

The school closed in 2007 when it merged with nearby London secondary, and the sale of the 13-acre site is the most lucrative of recent Lower Mainland sales. Both North Vancouver and Surrey are also selling surplus school properties to replace older schools in areas that still bustle with pupils.

Donna Sargent, chairwoman of the Richmond school board, said single-family neighbourhoods in Richmond, such as the one where Steveston secondary is found, are not seeing a lot of kids move in. The district’s research found that a school in that neighbourhood will not be needed for 50 years.

“The sale of these lands provides us with funding that can be used for other capital projects and will ensure the legacy of Steveston will remain within the Richmond community,” Sargent said.

The deal reserves five acres for a park and gives Polygon eight acres with no rezoning conditions attached. The money will be used by the district to pay for new schools, most likely to fill a pressing need in Richmond’s city centre.

More sales of surplus properties are expected across B.C., with 26 school sites approved for sale, according to Ministry of Education spokesman Ben Green. Green said the ministry couldn’t provide a breakdown of where the sites were located, but pointed to several in Surrey and on the North Shore.

Polygon affiliate Morningstar Homes, for example, is in talks with the North Vancouver school district to buy defunct Monteray elementary.

In July, the district inked a tentative $5.1-million deal for its Ridgeway Annex building with Anthem Properties, according to board chairwoman Franci Stratton. The money from that deal will go toward paying down the district’s debt to the ministry for rebuilding nearby Sutherland secondary and Westview elementary, Stratton said. In 2010, the board started looking at “budget challenges” and eventually identified 11 underused or defunct schools that could be sold or leased, Stratton said.

“We heard loud and clear that our schools need to be fully utilized,” she said.

Future sales or leases of schools will go toward funding the replacement of Argyle and Handsworth secondary schools.

Surrey school district spokesman Doug Strachan said only Anniedale elementary and the old school board offices, which the city might buy, are on the selling block.

Earlier this year the district traded Sunnyside elementary as partial payment for a bigger piece of Cloverdale land in a deal that’s expected to be finalized next spring.

The last school sold by the district was dilapidated Fleetwood elementary, which went for $9.3 million in August 2012. It had been decommissioned three years earlier because of its dangerous location, which had gradually become surrounded by three major thoroughfares and commercial businesses since it was built in the 1940s.

“We’ve got nothing else being sold, our big challenge is getting more schools,” Strachan said.

Patti Bacchus, chairwoman of the Vancouver school board, said the district is not looking to sell off any underused schools because “it’s a growing city.” Instead, the board has leased empty schools like the one at East 45th Ave and Prince Albert Street to the Khalsa School to generate revenue while keeping “the land available for long-term.”

In 2008, the government made a change that required the Minister of Education to approve all sales of school district properties, which became a de facto freeze on such sales. The process can take time: in March 2013, then education minister Don McRae approved the sale of Steveston secondary and gave the board two years to complete the sale.

mhager@postmedia.com

tsherlock@vancouversun.com