Mayor Sue McKortoff. (Richard McGuire file photo)
Education Minister Mike Bernier says he won’t overturn the decision by School District 52 to close Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS) and Mayor Sue McKortoff is not impressed.
In a reply to the minister sent Wednesday, McKortoff said, “I have to respectfully express our disappointment with your response of April 29.”
McKortoff was referring to a letter from Bernier in which he reiterates his position that school closure decisions should be made by trustees at the local level.
“I appreciate school closures are never an easy decision to make,” Bernier wrote. “But it is a decision best made by locally elected boards of education that are most familiar with the demographics of their communities and educational programming needs of their students. As such, I encourage you to raise your questions about the consultation process directly with the board.”
McKortoff responded that this suggestion “will be of no benefit in this situation.”
Solutions presented in the consultation process “were ignored, dismissed without appropriate assessment and not debated publicly,” she said.
She pointed to the minister that under the School Act, the final step in the process of school closure is an order from the minister.
“Council is respectfully requesting that the minister refuse to sign the OSS closure order until there is an independent third party review that ensures procedural fairness has occurred and the ‘letter and the spirit of the B.C. School Act’ is being achieved,” the mayor wrote.
McKortoff argued that, “this core service is being ripped out of our community for a paltry saving of approximately $245,622.”
This figure is based on what the town believes are the true costs of busing Osoyoos students to Oliver, based on a report the town commissioned from a transportation expert. The town disputes the school district’s figure.
Nor does the school district include costs of renovating Southern Okanagan Secondary School (SOSS) in Oliver to accommodate Osoyoos students, McKortoff told the minister.
She also said the decision to send OSS students for orientation and registration at SOSS before third reading of the closure bylaw “calls into question the board’s commitment to legal due process and procedural fairness.”
Osoyoos is an economic engine for the South Okanagan and it needs all its local assets to continue its local and regional success, she said.
“Council sees this decision to close OSS to be ill-timed and short sighted as we prepare for the anticipated relocation of new residents that will result due to the opening of the new South Okanagan Correctional Centre,” she wrote. “The board’s decision has already placed Osoyoos at a distinct disadvantage to offer potential new residents with the lifestyle and services that they were looking for when moving to our community.”
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
Mike Bernier, B.C. Minister of Education
