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South Okanagan Photos

Town Council to School District – Osoyoos – “delay school closures”

Letter

After attending the February 9th closed Osoyoos Town Council (Council)/SD#53 Board (SD#53) meeting and the public meeting in the evening, I am compelled to write to SD#53 on behalf of Council and the Osoyoos community. I must start by saying that the financial situation presented by SD#53 is extremely disturbing and viewed as a challenge that needs to be addressed in a collaborative manner that extends beyond the suggestions provided by SD#53.

Council consistently heard that SD#53’s current financial situation needed “out of the box” solutions. Council and the Osoyoos community are of the opinion that the proposed solution is an “in the box” solution and is squarely at the bottom of the box.
The challenge identified by SD#53 was stated to Council as “where do we find $1,000,000 to make up our budget shortfall?” Osoyoos Council respectfully submits that the challenge is, “within resources provided to us, how do we respectfully work with our regional constituency to provide the best education possible in their home communities?”

  1. I would like to highlight just a few of the product and process issues that Council and the public have with the current proposals to close Osoyoos schools and move children to new learning environments.1. The proposal does not recognize the academic and cultural successes of Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS) and relies on unsubstantiated proposals for increasing course offerings and innuendo that a larger school will provide better education.
  2. The proposal insufficiently considers the negative impacts of increased travel on student learning and personal growth, developed through opportunities provided by community-based extracurricular activities, school teams and part time employment.
  3. The economic and social damage that will be inflicted on Osoyoos by closing OSS is astronomical compared to the trivial savings of closing the school. It is incomprehensible to the Osoyoos community and Electoral Area ‘A’ residents that they would continue to contribute approximately $3.8 million and $1.2 million in school taxes annually, respectively, and lose the services of OSS over a “regional deficit” in the amount of approximately $530,000.
  4. Other options exist that will enable SD#53 to meet similar budget targets without closing OSS and enable students to continue to receive full education services in their own community. The Osoyoos public finds it incomprehensible that no other options were even considered for public consultation. By all appearances, the consequences of the entire region’s declining enrollment are being borne only by the Osoyoos community.
  5. The proposed solution is to close OSS and move students to an underutilized Southern Okanagan Secondary School (SOSS) that had its student capacity increased from 550 to 700. By all appearances, the decision to close OSS was made at the same time as the decision to increase the size of SOSS. This current situation “taints” the concept of SD#53 providing transparent governance and consultation with the regional constituency. Regional consultation needed to be carried out prior to the expansion of SOSS.
  6. The information presented provided a bleak financial picture for SD#53; however, accurate information on the real net cost savings achieved by closing OSS was not provided. Also, the option of closing OSS did not come close to solving the budget deficit. Greater governance and decision making transparency is needed with support from accurate information that provides full disclosure of all options to be considered.
  7. SD#53 did not provide any accurate information on how the budget deficit was going to be solved over the next three years. The financial information provided was a partial one year plan with no business plan forecast that would illustrate a real added value of closing OSS. The closure of OSS appears to be a decision with little or no long term forecast for successfully meeting budget challenges.

Council is committed to working with SD#53; however, it is the opinion of Council that a regional school funding problem must have a regional solution – not a made in Osoyoos only solution. Council is also committed to using all resources available to the community to ensure that Kindergarten to Grade 12 services are available in Osoyoos. Council is looking to SD#53 to delay any school closures for this year and initiate a district wide engagement process that works toward a transparent long term solution to the service and financial issues currently facing SD#53.

source: Letter signed my Sue McKortoff to School District chair Marieze Tarr – both of Osoyoos