By Roy Wood

Enrolment down slightly

The numbers may change slightly by the end-of-month count for provincial funding purposes, but as of Sept. 17, Okanagan Similkameen school district student enrolment is down by about 65 students from last September.

Secretary-Treasurer Lynda Minnabarriet told the board Wednesday the enrolment is 2,156 full-time equivalent (FTE) students, down from 2,221.25 last year.

She said administration had projected a slightly smaller reduction in student numbers.

The count at the end of September is the one that will determine levels of funding from the provincial government.

Vineyard supports student arts

Board members agreed they would send a thank you note to Tinhorn Creek Vineyards for its $6000 gift supporting fine arts programs in the district.

The money will be split among Oliver Elementary, Tuc El Nuit Elementary and South Okanagan Secondary schools to fund extra music, dance and fine arts programming.

The gift relates to Tinhorn’s new charity, Celebrate the Arts, which funds kids’ arts in the Oliver area.

Is student data safe?

Members of the board accepted without comment a suggestion from the teachers’ union president regarding the security of local students’ electronic data.

Sylvia Slater asked the board if a review of student data safety is warranted following the loss of a hard drive in Victoria containing personal information about millions of BC students.

The hard drive, which was not encrypted, was a back-up volume containing files related to more than 3.4 million students and teachers in BC and the Yukon between 1986 and 2009.

Slater said, “I’m not saying we’re not doing things right here,” but wondered if the local situation should be looked at. She added that the district policy “isn’t very thorough.”