Dear Editor:

The position taken by the board of School District 53 – through their Vancouver law firm – that the court action launched by the Town of Osoyoos has ‘no merit’ should not surprise anyone .

It is exactly the same attitude that was very evident all along at the so-called public consultations that the board staged in our community.

At each of the meetings, an endless number of community members passionately voiced their concerns, while other informed individuals stepped up with financial and logistic solutions to the board’s stated concerns. I, along with many others, came away from each meeting feeling buoyed by the resolve and determination that was demonstrated by the citizens of our town.

We were certain that if the trustees were truly concerned about the welfare of our students and our community, they could not possibly continue with their stated objective to close our high school. That feeling of euphoria was quickly extinguished the following day as, after each meeting, the board chair and certain trustees would smugly announce to the media that they had not heard anything of value.

It became obvious that the meetings were not genuine and were simply held so that the board could announce to the government and the public that they had listened to the people.

The board chair’s recent explanation letter to our community is another example of how this board is even willing to fabricate and twist the facts to support their agenda.

Board chair Marieze Tarr makes the following three statements in the letter that have no basis in fact.

First, she says school enrolment is declining. While that may be true for the district overall, especially in Oliver, it is not the case in Osoyoos.

Osoyoos Elementary is now at capacity and will be bursting at the seams this fall, unless more people chose to leave our community in response to this school board’s actions.

Secondly, Tarr stated OSS requires millions of dollars to be spent on upgrades. That is simply not true. The building is solid and all mechanical systems are working. While it is always possible to upgrade any building with more modern efficient systems, those upgrades are optional and not critical or necessary. Thirdly, she said students are suffering academically in our small schools. That inference also is not true.

The graduation numbers, performance on provincial exams and statistics for advancement to post secondary education for OSS are all very good.

The important question here is have students in large, modern high schools like the new SOSS been performing better academically than students in smaller schools like OSS?

The answer is a definitive no. They have not been shown to perform better.

What the school board fails to realize is the important issue here is not about buildings, but about people.

It is about our students, our families and our community.

If this school board insists on continuing on its current path of the forced busing of our students out of our community to Oliver, than I have a message for them and also a request to the provincial government.

To the trustees I say that if you are successful in forcing your agenda upon us and anything untoward should occur as a result of this forced busing to Oliver, then be aware that the people affected will know who should be held accountable.

To the provincial government I have two requests.

Firstly, If school district 53 trustees refuse to “do the right thing” and reverse their decision to close OSS, then I would request that the provincial government remove this board and replace them with one which will carry out the will of the people.

Secondly, if you, as our government are not willing to take the necessary action, then I would request that you remove Osoyoos from SD 53 so that we can elect ourselves a board which will represent our community.

Larry Miller

Osoyoos, B.C.