Windmill Tilters ©
Back in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, the Oliver PTA was in a fight along * with the School Board in an attempt to get the native children out of residential schools and into the Oliver school system. They were met with fierce opposition from the federal government so they formed a task force to meet with the feds and push for what they felt was right.
My mother was Sec’y to the Task Force and Alma Faulds was the President of about 25 mothers and fathers who d…ecided it was time to do battle with the feds.
Alma went to Ottawa where she met up with Tommy Douglas who paved the way for her to speak to the Minister in charge of Native Affairs. Maybe it was having the leader of the NDP Tommy Douglas with her, I really don’t know but after a hard fought battle, the Ministry agreed but put down conditions. All conditions were met but one. The school board would need to provide a school bus to drive the students back and forth.
Back to Oliver they went and Mom, Alma and several parents met with Frank Venables, Chairman of the School Board. Frank was sympathetic but said funds were not available to buy another school bus and they could not take any existing bus as they were already full.
Mom and Alma got on the phone and started to call every school in the Okanagan and vowed to phone every one in the province. Mom happened to know a gentleman on the Kelowna School Board and phoned him personally. She explained the situation and he told her to give him a couple of days and he would see what he could find.
Two days later he phoned back…he had a school bus!!! The Kelowna board had semi retired one of their older models to be used in emergencies and Chas convinced the Chairman of the Board to allow it to go to Oliver and after he explained the situation, a meeting was held in Kelowna and it was passed that the bus be “lent” to Oliver for their use!!
A phone call to Frank Venables with the news and the Oliver schools were now about to have an increase in their enrollment. Frank was ecstatic and there was a special PTA meeting in which the task force was honoured for their diligence in getting the job done.
I am not exactly sure but I believe that the first students started primary and elementary in the fall of 1961 when my sister Norma and Jana Kinsman Huolt were in Grade One. Jana recalls riding the bus with some students but not the year. At S.O.S.S. the first two students were Frances “Petunia” Baptiste and Marcus Louie in the fall of 1963. No more residential schools…no more leaving their families…they would all go to school in Oliver.
Frances Baptiste was the first Native student to graduate from S.O.S.S. and I am proud to say that she was a member of our graduating class of 1964. Frances was awarded the Cranna Watch at the graduation ceremonies.