Mayor Pat Hampson:

I met with SD 53 trustees today and we held discussions which lasted about an hour. The thrust of my comments was to encourage them to vote to keep Tuc el Nuit Elementary School open. I was well received by the Trustees and we covered several topics relative to the concerns that Tuc el Nuit Elementary will be closed. The Trustees assured me that no decision on closure has been made but I stated that poor communication amongst the SD, local parents and Council was the cause of fears that the decision to keep Osoyoos Secondary School open, will automatically result in closure of Tuc el Nuit Elementary.

We also discussed the serious problems facing all school districts as declining enrollment results in provincial funding cuts and I suggested that the SD should take every opportunity to engage the Town as we would certainly advance any case to the province which supports efforts to maintain the educational fabric of our community.

I suggested that a formal invitation from SD 53 to the Town, as the agency which collects taxes for the SD , would have enabled us to send a representative to their budget discussions and would have resulted in better communication all round as to the problems they face. Having said that I understand there is a recommendation from the new Superintendent, Bev Young, that discussions on the closure of TeN be taken off the table because the protection funding has been approved by the Ministry of Education.

While I must be sympathetic to the financial predicament which confronts our SD and others in the province, I believe that relying only on advertisements in one local paper does not make for adequate communication to those affected as this Council discovered in 2008.

If we had all realized what was at stake earlier this year, then attendance at preliminary SD budget meetings would have been much better and the lack of input from Oliver parents would not have been perceived as lack of interest in what has become a very polarizing and emotional issue. I hope my discussion today will result in a vote to keep Tuc el Nuit open.