Dear Editor:

I would like to implore all the residents of Osoyoos to please wake up and smell the coffee.

The two proposals brought forth by the staff and trustees of School District 53 to close an Osoyoos school are the most important issue that our town has faced in the last 30 years.

It is not just our students and their families who will be affected, but every single person living in our town.

After all the recent press coverage and very well attended public meetings, I still come across people in our community who are complacent or oblivious to the situation.

They are generally unaware of the enormity of the consequences of such an action.

Some residents who are retired or without children in school are actually under the impression that school closures would mean they wouldn’t have to pay school taxes.

The fact is that all property owners in Osoyoos will pay school tax, even if we have no schools in our town. We are considered part of School District 53 and, therefore, we would continue to pay our tax dollars to build and operate schools in Oliver, Okanagan Falls, and Keremeos.

I urge all local citizens to please get yourselves informed with the facts regarding our schools. Read our local newspaper, read the articles on the internet and please read the letters from knowledgeable people like Robin Stille and Brenda Dorosz.

They have spent countless hours researching our school district’s operations and financial figures.

The numbers they came up with do not justify the severe measures which the school board trustees are proposing.

Well-respected Osoyoos resident Tony Brummet (who is also our well-respected former B.C. Minister of Education) said in his Letter to the Editor in the Feb. 17 edition of the Osoyoos Times, “A two-percent shortage of desired funds does not qualify as an extreme situation” and does not warrant extreme measures like closing a school.

MLA Linda Larson has repeatedly said that she will not get involved in our school situation as she feels that it is a local issue and, therefore, it should be a local decision.

If that is indeed the case, then I say that I consider a local decision to be one that is made by local residents. I do not consider trustees and staff who live in Oliver, Okanagan Falls, and Keremeos to be local residents. Therefore, it should be the people of Osoyoos who make any decisions about the future of schools in our town.

At the last public meeting last week, I heard the students who the school board, very reluctantly, allowed to speak say that they do not want to leave Osoyoos to attend school in Oliver.

The students are happy with their school, their parents are happy with their schools, and the Osoyoos teachers are happy with their schools.

I would like to add that the people of Osoyoos are also happy with the responsible students and citizens our Osoyoos schools are producing.

We should continue to encourage this great success and never allow a good thing to be closed down.

Larry Miller

Osoyoos, B.C.