No closures in th North Okanagan Shuswap district until next year.

At a crammed meeting in the district office Tuesday night, trustees decided “to extend the consultation process for closure of Armstrong Elementary and Silver Creek Elementary until April 2017,” according to Alice Hucul, spokesperson for School District 83.

“They voted to implement task forces for Armstrong and Salmon Arm, similar to the one that happened in Sicamous,” said Hucul. “These committees will review, among other things, demographic information, school configurations and catchment areas in the Armstrong and Salmon Arm schools.”

More than 150 people attended the meeting, Hucul said.

Trustees had approved recommendations to close the two elementary schools in Armstrong and Salmon Arm before the start of the next school year, although a public consultation process was to have taken place first.

The board must cut $1.3 million from its 2016-17 budget and that money still has to be found.

Parents in Armstrong were so distraught by the proposed closure of the Armstrong Elementary that they started up a petition, gaining thousands of signatures within the community, and won the support of Armstrong city council in their battle to keep the red brick building open.

Source: Castanet

Penticton/Summerland SD 67 Meets tonight to decide fate of some schools in the district.