by Roy Wood
For the first time in more than 20 years, the Okanagan-Similkameen school board will be chaired by someone not from Osoyoos.
And the new chair, Oliver school trustee Rob Zandee, continues to hold the view that the South Okanagan would be better off with just one high school – Southern Okanagan Secondary School (SOSS) in Oliver.
Marieze Tarr, who has been board chair since 2011, announced a year ago that she would be stepping aside because she doesn’t plan to seek re-election as a trustee from Osoyoos next October. At that time, Zandee was named vice-chair with a view to his succeeding Tarr. The election by board members takes place this afternoon at 4:30.
Before Tarr, June Harrington, also from Osoyoos, sat at the head of the board table chair for 15 years.
Zandee’s view that Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS) should be closed and students moved to SOSS goes back at least to the controversy of spring 2016. OSS was threatened with closure because of lack of funding based on declining enrolment. The town of Osoyoos rallied and protested and at the last moment the province offered extra money to keep the school open.
The funds were in the so-called Rural Education Enhancement Relief (REEF) program. At a June 30 meeting, a motion to apply for the funding was put before the board. Only Zandee and fellow Oliver trustee Rachel Allenbrand voted against applying for the grant.
Zandee argued at the time that keeping OSS open and not transferring its students to SOSS would result in the loss of a number of specialized courses.
His view hasn’t changed. In an interview this morning, Zandee said: “I think any time you can have a larger cohort in any place you have better options for education. It just makes sense.”
When there are smaller numbers of students in schools, he said, “… there’s a lot of kids who may or may not be getting the classes that they want in all the high schools because it doesn’t have that critical mass. We all lose out.”
Asked if he will pursue an agenda of closing OSS, Zandee said, “There is no agenda. … As long as that money’s still there, that’s the reality. OSS is still open.”
Councillor Mike Campol, Osoyoos town council’s school board liaison, expressed concern about Zandee’s position on OSS closure.
“I am concerned that the chair still feels that we’d be better off (with one high school),” Campol said in an interview today.
“I really don’t know the guy. He could be very bright and good at his position, but it’s concerning for me that we went through all that and he still wanted to see our school closed.”
Outgoing chair Tarr points out that the board chair is just one of seven voices on the board and, except in the case of a tie, usually doesn’t even vote. “The chair is the liaison between the staff and the board, but (he or she) doesn’t really have any power.”
She said it really doesn’t matter in which community the chair was elected. “Once you become a trustee you are a trustee for the whole district and you do what’s best for kids in the whole district, not just in your community.”
Asked whether the 2016 votes by Zandee and Allenbrand against the REEF grant indicates a view favouring Oliver, Tarr said: “I guess if you wanted to look at it that way, you could say that.
“Or you could say that philosophically they believed that (closing OSS) would have been the best for all the kids. … I don’t want to speculate why they voted that way, but you could say either one of those two.”
It appears almost inevitable that the issue of school closure will come up again, although NDP education minister Rob Fleming has promised to keep REEF in place at least until after the current funding formula review.
SOSS is a nearly new facility, having been rebuilt following a major fire in 2011. It is also under-utilized, with a capacity of 700 and an enrolment of under 500. And the aging OSS has barely over 200 students in a school that will hold 325.