At a meeting in February 2007, VANOC’s Maureen Douglas told a group of parents at Myrtle Philip Community School, “After assessing the need in the Sea to Sky, we anticipate that we will put forward a request to the school district for use of the four high schools in the district,” adding that if that happened, the most likely use for the schools would be as a place to house Games volunteers.

Now, we recognize that the word “request” in no way, shape or form represents an ironclad guarantee. Any and all such matters are subject to internal discussion and negotiations, which don’t take place in a vacuum — and obviously, VANOC is affected by the current global economic situation to more or less the same degree as are others. Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic organizers will, after the last Games medal has been awarded, be judged at least in part by how well or poorly they manage their finances, and we don’t expect them to break the bank just to enrich the local school district.

However, we think parents and school officials have a right to feel just a bit disappointed — Miffed? Jilted? — that after all the time, effort and angst spent discussing, surveying, discussing some more, deciding, second-guessing and re-jigging the school calendar for 2009-’10, VANOC officials weren’t willing or able to ante up enough cash to help cover the cost of daycare programs School District 48 officials had hoped to run for children whose parents have no other option during the Games. Did they think school officials were going to go through this entire, two-year process just to cover the cost of maintaining the schools during that period?

While no one held a gun to anyone’s head and said, “You must close the schools,” there most certainly was an expectation that something would get done, to the mutual benefit of both parties.

The disappointment, of course, will subside, and when it does, parents will mostly be the ones left holding the bag — that is, unless school officials, working with others in the community, can come up with a Plan B. That could well involve renting out one or more of the district’s four secondary schools to one or more national team(s), earning the district some revenue. But it seems to us it would take several such agreements to earn enough to run the desired programs. And time is running short.

We have no idea how VANOC plans to house volunteers, only that “VANOC will now pursue other options for workforce accommodation and support service.”

And what of academics? While in many respects the Games represent (as officials have been telling us all along) a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for youngsters in the Sea to Sky corridor, and being out of school for at least part of the Games will help them experience the excitement, what of the secondary school students who will be out of school for an extended period — Whistler Secondary students for three weeks, others for two? Will some students’ studies suffer from being out of school for so long during a critical part of the school year?

Lest we forget, VANOC’s primary job is to put on the best Games possible, and secondarily to do so while more or less balancing its own budget. It would have been nice in this instance if it could also have stepped up and supported those in the corridor whose efforts will contribute to the realization of the organization’s primary goal. Lesson learned.