Does destruction make sense to you?

Explaining why it doesn't make sense to save all or at least some of the Vankleek Hill Collegiate Institute theatre doesn't make sense once you get into it.
Try it.
It's too expensive to save the theatre. Why? Where are the numbers?
Could the theatre be moved? No one has answered that one.  Is there vacant land where the theatre would be welcome?
Could the theatre be incorporated into the existing school? No, because there are infrastructure systems like water, sewage and electricity. Too complicated . . . or too little interest to even consider the notion?
A cafetorium in the new school will replace the existing theatre. Will it? Will the acoustics be the same? Has the school board planned for appropriate lighting? Sound? A secure room for the refurbished grand piano currently in residence at VCI? Will we invite world-class performers to sing and play there? Seems there is no plan for the piano nor hope for a drama department, performances or fundraisers in a real theatre in the new school.
Our town has a real theatre now. And shame on all of us for just accepting that it will be carted away soon enough -- no more than several truckloads of waste.
And shame on the Upper Canada District School Board for not protecting this valued resource which is part of the community on which it relies for tax revenues and for extensive support for all activities which take place in the school community. The theatre is a part of the community which is at this very moment raising funds for things like a wood gym floor in the new school. (Don't ask about the wood floor in the existing gym or the fate of the gym. They're not good for anything, you see.)
Talk about the fate of the theatre made someone mention the other day that we should have saved the Vankleek Hill train station from being torn down as that would have made a good theatre. Have you seen what they did in Hudson, asked this person.
Obviously, someone looked at the Hudson train station and saw a theatre -- not a pile of rubble. We can't say the same thing about our train station or the VCI theatre.
Most of us have taken this theatre for granted, expecting it would always be there. In the absence of vision from the school board, more is the pity that not one of us came forward with the vision, conviction or leadership to save the theatre.
The seats show signs of students taking it for granted, too. Many of the retractable study tables are gone and many arm rests are broken or missing.
These are all signs that point to what really makes sense: something we have little regard for will be torn down soon. No wonder no one cares.
Last Sunday, as mezzo-soprano Julie Nesrallah's voice filled the theatre with a famous aria from the opera Carmen, one could not help but feel the theatre should be saved for moments like this.  
The wrecking ball seemed very far away.                L.S.