To the editor:

Now that the wrapping has been removed from the old Lord Kitchener school building, the true nature of "heritage preservation" is revealed.

The original old school was completely gutted, raised and moved to new foundations, and now has been re-roofed, most of the rear wall removed to provide access to the new building, new entrances have been constructed, the original windows removed and replaced with new ones custom built to match the old, the entire siding replaced with new and the interior reconfigured and rebuilt.

This, Ms. Patti Bacchus of the Vancouver School Board, assures us is a "fiscally practical" ("VSB chair explains Kitchener decision," Letters, Nov. 25) use of scarce educational funding.

I would still like to know how much this renovation has cost compared with simply expanding the size of the new construction. And how such drastic reconstruction constitutes preserving a building with "high heritage significance."

Bruce Levens, Vancouver