Good Shepherd Christian School is closing and will not reopen in September. (Keith Lacey photo)
Several hundred alumni who attended Good Shepherd Christian School (GSCS) over the past 25 years are expected to attend a “special goodbye celebration” on Sunday, Aug. 28.
It was announced in July that GSCS would be closing its doors after being part of the Osoyoos community for the past 25 years.
The school, which was operated by Grace Lutheran Church in Osoyoos, has been offering a Christian-based education since 1992.
A committee was formed to organize a special goodbye celebration and hundreds of alumni are expected to attend that celebration on Aug. 28, said Karen Nerbas, chair of the Board of Education for Grace Lutheran Church.
“This will be a celebration of the 25 years that we have been in operation in Osoyoos,” she said. “We didn’t want to just close our doors, so we decided it was appropriate to have a special celebration to remember the many benefits of this school to our church and to this community.”
The day will include a large Sunday morning mass at Grace Lutheran Church on Aug. 28 beginning at 9 a.m.
After the ceremony, all of those in attendance will be invited to a large barbecue and pot luck luncheon at 12:30 p.m. at the home of Ruth Knippleberg, who is one of the founders “and the driving force” behind the establishment of GSCS in Osoyoos, said Nerbas.
Her home is located on Dogwood Lane in Oliver.
While exact figures aren’t known, it’s believed between 800 and 900 students have graduated from GSCS over the past 25 years, said Nerbas.
Nerbas is hopeful that many of the alumni attending the celebration will bring pictures and hopefully get up and speak to share some stories about their time at the school.
Having to close the school was a very difficult decision for everyone at Grace Lutheran Church and the small, but dedicated teaching staff, she said.
“It was a very very difficult decision and we did look carefully at perhaps looking at other funding avenues, but when we determined there was no long-term funding solutions, the decision was made to close,” she said.
Nerbas said the special celebration should be a very memorable day for everyone involved.
“This school played a big role in a lot of lives and it should be a great day looking back at days gone by,” she said.
Nerbas said she is proud to have been associated with the school since she moved to Osoyoos back in 2007.
“The school supported the community with spiritual and practical elementary education, teaching Kindergarten to Grade 7,” she said. “For the majority of those years, the school was a great success and made an impact on the community by reaching out not only with education, but also with respect and discipline that grew the good reputation of the school.
“It was with sadness that the congregation at Grace Lutheran voted to close the school due to the lack of sustaining funding and the ever decreasing registration numbers.”
All former students and teachers are encouraged to come and celebrate the history of the school and share their memories, she said.
The reason for closing the school was strictly financial and rather complicated.
There is a large fund that is operated by the Lutheran Church of Canada for churches in Alberta and B.C and Good Shepherd accessed significant money from that fund every year to operate the school, but that fund went into receivership several months ago.
“Without access to that funding, we were put in a tremendous financial bind and the decision was made that we could no longer operate the school here in Osoyoos,” said longtime Grace Lutheran member Ted Cronmiller. “We’re (Grace Lutheran Church) going to be tied up for years trying to get back whatever money we can, but what we call the Church Extension Fund that has been used to fund our schools is in receivership.”
Longtime school principal Angela Westcott, who had done a magnificent job as a teacher and administrator at Good Shepherd, has lost her job as well as one other full-time teacher, said Cronmiller.
During its peak years in the mid-1990s, there were between 30 and 40 students attending Good Shepherd Christian School in Osoyoos.
You can find out more about the history of Grace Lutheran Church and Good Shepherd Christian School in Osoyoos by visiting the website at www.osoyooslutheranchurch.com.
Anyone wanting more information about the celebration on Aug. 28 is asked to contact Angela Westcott at 250-495-5077 or Ruth Knippleberg at 250-498-2585.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
