In what School District 53 expects to be the first of more changes in the future, they put forward a motion to close the elementary school in Osoyoos.
“Closing schools is not why any of us became trustees. We don’t have much of an option how are we going to save this money and my fear is that this is only the beginning,” said chairperson Marieze Tarr.
Facing a deficit that could grow to $1.4 million in 2017-2018 and declining enrolment that would see 800 seats vacant across the district, the board moved two recommendations at a special meeting held on Wednesday. The first to close Osoyoos Elementary School and change Osoyoos Secondary School to kindergarten to Grade 9 and the second to take Grades 10 to 12 students from the high school and transfer them to the South Okanagan Secondary School in Oliver.
The total potential savings if the two recommendations are implemented is $200,000 to $400,000 from the operating budget. The rationale behind choosing these options over others, explained school board staff, is it would provide a greater range of curricular and extra-curricular options for Osoyoos students — both those that will remain in the community and those that will transfer to the high school in Oliver.
The changes would require the addition of more bussing services and a “minor” renovation at SOSS to accommodate the new students. As well, the Osoyoos high school would require a renovation of $430,000 that would come from the capital budget.
The recommendations hit hard for some in the audience.
“I find it very difficult to accept that either one of these options is acceptable, certainly not to people in Osoyoos,” said the town’s Mayor Sue McKortoff. “I know that when you have consultation in Osoyoos you are going to run into a great deal of confusion. It is going to be a huge issue.”
The second option of closing Osoyoos Secondary School and moving kids to the elementary school, “doesn’t even make sense” said McKortoff. According to the long-range facilities report, the school is graded as one of the best facilities in the district. The bulk of them fall in the “poor” category including Cawston Primary, Okanagan Falls Elementary, Oliver Elementary, Osoyoos Secondary and Tuc-El-Nuit.
Okanagan Falls trustee Sam Hancheroff expressed his frustration with government cutbacks to funding that saw the district lose programs such as ULearn for adult education which further impacted their enrolment numbers.
“They told us we have to cut things from our schools to make sure we don’t have deficits. I can vouch for the past six years we have been cutting, cutting, cutting, cutting,” he said of the budget which the board has saved $1 million since 2009. “It is a sad day for School District 53 education.”.
Village of Keremeos councillor Sherri Philpott-Adhikary said Hancheroff hit the nail in the head with his comments.
“It’s none of our fault. It’s the governments fault. We are not given sufficient funds to actually run the schools and I think we should be doing more lobbying as parents, as employees of the district and as trustees and senior staff. We need to have more money in our systems to enable us to function properly,” said Philpott-Adhikary who was given a round of applause by those in the audience after speaking. “I don’t understand why we are not rising up and saying ‘give us the money for heaven’s sake.’ We are ruining a whole generation of kids who are not going to have as bright of futures as we have had. I think we need to keep that in our heads as the underlying message here.”
Public consultation will take place on Feb. 9 at Osoyoos Secondary School at 7 p.m. and on March 8 at Osoyoos Elementary School at 7 p.m. The board will meet on April 6 to make a decision on the motions, the venue is still to be determined. Comments can also be submitted by email osoyoosconsult@sd53.bc.ca.