By ROY WOOD

The chances that Osoyoos Secondary School will be open in September got much better this evening as school trustees agreed to apply for a last-minute financial lifeline from the province.

Okanagan-Similkameen board members voted 5-2 to apply for the money that could keep the school open this September and beyond.

Accompanying the vote was a notice of motion from Okanagan Falls Trustee Sam Hancheroff for a vote on June 30 to rescind the bylaw the board passed in April to close OSS. That vote will only go forward if the application for funds is approved by the province.

Mayor Sue McKortoff told reporters after the vote that the result was “the best I could have hoped for … I’m cautiously happy.”

Premier Christy Clark announced the so-called Rural Education Enhancement Fund (REEF) last Wednesday in Quesnel.

It is aimed squarely at rural districts contemplating school closures to deal with financial pressures. Nine schools, including OSS, were named in the announcement as targets.

Applications for REEF funds must be made by Friday and the ministry has assured districts that decisions on funding will be announced by June 30.

That is the same day OSS is scheduled to close. The board has scheduled a special meeting for that afternoon to potentially vote to rescind the closure bylaw, assuming the funding comes through.

Debate on the issue was lively and at times heated Wednesday.

Oliver Trustees Rob Zandee and Rachel Allenbrand argued that leaving OSS open and not transferring students to SOSS in Oliver would result in a loss of a number of specialized courses.

Several trustees were distrustful of the provincial government and its motives and the likelihood of the funding continuing beyond the coming school year.

Secretary Lynda Minnabarriet said the material provided by the ministry indicates the funding will be “ongoing.”

In the end, Osoyoos trustees June Harringtopn and chair Marieze Tarr were joined by Hancheroff and Keremeos trustees Myrna Coates and Debbie Marten in voting to apply for the funds. Only Zandee and Allenbrand dissented.

At the announcement last week, Clark said: “Closing the only high school or elementary school in a rural community has a large impact on that local economy.”

REEF eligibility criteria include:

•The threatened school must be in a district outside Greater Vancouver, Victoria or Kelowna;

•The closure being contemplated must eliminate specific grades within a community; and

•The money can only be used to keep the school open.

Districts may apply for up to the amount of the potential savings from closing the school. The board will apply for the $387,000 in operating budget savings and $103,000 in “deferred capital expenses.”

Along with the REEF, Clark announced a study of rural education funding in the province. Appointed to the task were Boundary-Similkameen MLA Linda Larson and Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett. Both were also named parliamentary secretaries.

In a release accompanying the announcement, Education Minister Mike Bernier said: “For students, families, and rural areas, the local school is the centre of the community and the local economy. In my time as minister I’ve seen that our education funding model doesn’t take all the unique rural factors into account.”

NDP education critic Rob Fleming said the funding is an attempt by the government to counter bad headlines about school closings in the lead up to next May’s provincial election.
“After starving education funding for years, Christy Clark has finally woken up and realized that when schools are forced to close in rural communities where there are no other options for students, it has a devastating effect on families, communities and regional economies,” he said in a statement last week.