By ROY WOOD
Osoyoos will bear the brunt of the fight against the school district budget deficit as senior staff recommended Wednesday that either the town’s high school or its elementary school be shuttered.
No other school-closure options were recommended to the school board by senior staff in its “facilities plan” update.
Trustees voted to accept the recommendations and move forward with public consultations around two scenarios:
- Close Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS) and transfer its grade-eight-to-12 students to South Okanagan Secondary (SOSS) in Oliver; or
- Close Osoyoos Elementary, re-invent OSS as a kindergarten-to-grade-nine school and move the grade 10-12 students to SOSS.
Public consultations will begin shortly. Depending on what comes out of them, superintendent Bev Young said in an interview Wednesday that one of the schools could potentially be closed as early as this September.
Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff attended the meeting and told the board she was very disappointed. “I find it difficult to accept that either option is acceptable,” she said.
“I know that when you have consultations in Osoyoos you will run into confusion. This will be a huge issue in Osoyoos.”
McKortoff, who taught at Osoyoos Elementary for more than 30 years, pointed out the irony of Osoyoos Elementary being considered for closure. It is the only one of the seven schools in the Okanagan Similkameen district that has a “facility condition” rating higher than “poor” or “very poor.”
June Harrington, trustee for Osoyoos, said: “Closing either school will be devastating to the community.”
The facilities report released Wednesday is part of the process to reduce and eventually eliminate the district’s structural deficit in an environment of declining enrolments.
It pointed out that the budget deficit for the current school year will be $530,000. In 2016/17 it will rise to $1.1 million and by 2017/18 will reach $1.4 million.
The district has been using an accumulated surplus from earlier years to cover the deficit. But it is running out and will drop to about $800,000 in September.
The provincial government is the source of virtually all of the board’s funds. And the provincial grant is based primarily on the number of students in the district.
Those numbers are falling and will continue to do so. District-wide enrolment was 2,292 students in 2011. It is 2,144 this year and is expected to it will drop to 1,910 in 2024.
Young told the board that the savings from the closure of a school amounts to between $200,000 and $400,000 per year.
Several school-closure options were considered but rejected by the administration for a variety of reasons.
Closing Okanagan Falls Elementary and move students to Oliver: rejected because it is the only school in the community; closing would result in loss of a $160,000 per year small community grant; and students might opt to leave the district and go to Kaleden or Penticton.
Closing Cawston Primary and consolidating with Similkameen Elementary/Secondary (SESS): rejected because of the loss of $500,000 in grants and because upgrading SESS would cost $1.6 million.
Closing Tuc-el-Nuit Elementary and move students to Oliver Elementary (OES): rejected because of uncertainty of the impact of the new provincial jail on numbers of students and because of accessibility issues at OES.
At the end of the staff presentation several of the board members expressed dismay at the realities of having to operate within the financial constraints imposed by the province.
“It doesn’t matter what we do,” said Keremeos trustee Myrna Coates, “it’s going to hurt.”
Trustee Robert Zandee of Oliver asked what would happen if the board simply submitted a deficit budget to the province. Secretary treasurer Lynda Minnabarriet told him the last school board to do so was fired by the province.
“My only fear,” said board chair Marieze Tarr, “is that this is only the beginning.”