Later today, Trustees of School District #53 Okanagan Similkameen, will revisit a decision to start a consultative process over the possible closure of Tucelnuit Elementary School.
Here are two stories from the back files of Oliver Daily News that shows the process of finding ways of cutting back has been going on for some time:
In January
Fate of TEN school and Osoyoos Secondary up again
Saturday 01/22/2011 – 19:48
Next Wednesday, School District #53 trustees will debate the merits of pushing forward one or all of the four proposals for major changes to education facilities in the region.
The published agenda for the meeting in Oliver at 7:30 pm at the SD offices calls for discussion on these topics in the Capital Master Plan:
1. Moving grade 4 students from Cawston School to Similkameen Elementary Secondary School. Savings $70, 000
2. Relocation of Osoyoos U-Learn Centre from Main St (on private property) to the old bus sheds near the elementary school. Savings $34, 000 annually with a one-time construction cost of $125, 000
3. Closing Tuc-el-nuit Elementary and adding these 190 students to the population at Oliver Elementary in September 2012. Savings $385,000
4. Closing Osoyoos Secondary and busing that school population (247) to the refurbrished SOSS in September 2012 Savings $725,000
School Trustees met with Osoyoos Town Council on January 12 and agreed to a collaborative approach to the problem of closing OSS – if that decision is made.
~~~
From January
TEN school now on the chopping block
Wednesday 01/26/2011 – 22:44
Closure of Tuc-el-nuit Elementary in Oliver has moved closer with District trustees giving the green light to the next step in a process that will eventually see all 190 T.E.N students moved to OES.
At a discussion Wednesday night, School District #53 trustees had four items to deliberate on – in an effort to cut about $900,000 from the annual budget.
1. Move grade four students from the Cawston Primary School to the larger elementary-secondary school in Keremeos – that idea was shot down on the basis of a wrong mix of primary age students and high school kids.
2. Move the U-Learn centre downtown in Osoyoos from leased premises and place it inside a school facility – that will be studied with the possibility of moving it to Osoyoos Secondary.
3. Close Tuc-el-nuit School and integrate with Oliver Elementary students.
4. Close Osoyoos Secondary School and bus 247 students to Oliver when the high school here is fully renovated. Trustees agreed that this was not an option at this time even though there were concerns about declining enrolment and fewer class choices for students.
Mayor Stu Wells had told the School Board that closure of OSS would kill the town and his council opted for involving themselves in thinking outside the box to fix the problems. Wells told the Board Monday that everything he heard was true and knew first hand the responsibility of a trustee – faced with tremendous pressure to cut the budget.
Board chair June Harrington, from Osoyoos, said she was totally against any decision to close the local high school. Harrington and other trustees, including two from Oliver, stated that closure of Tuc-el-nuit Elementary was the least disruptive decision to make. That could reduce the budget by almost $400,000.
The key question: where will the board find a half million dollars in other savings to balance the budget?