Bev Young, superintendent, summarized the feedback received from the community, but did not respond to the points made. (Richard McGuire photo)
The survival of Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS) means it will also be business as usual come September at Southern Okanagan Secondary School in Oliver.
“I always look forward to a positive school year,” said School District 53 superintendent Bev Young. “We’ll be getting familiar with the revised curriculum and looking at how we can offer engaging instruction to students.”
In early July, immediately after it was announced OSS would remain open, SD 53 began re-staffing the schools right away – as if concerns of a closure never happened.
“We basically repeated the process that would have happened anyway,” she said.
Before the silver bullet that actually saved OSS, the provincial government dumped $118,000 into the district one month earlier. There was some early speculation that it would have been enough to save the school, but it ended up getting spent on giving students extra course offerings.
“That money that came in got put back to secondary school blocks that would have been reduced because of the low student-teacher ratio.”
Young said the money allowed for seven extra blocks to be added throughout the district; Similkameen has four, SOSS would have had three, but because OSS is staying open, it will receive one extra block and SOSS will get two.
Young said the student count has increased at Oliver Elementary and Osoyoos Elementary, which she attributed partially to the closure of Good Shepherd Christian School in Osoyoos.
Young said a revised curriculum is being worked on for students from Kindergarten to Grade 9, and students in Grades 10, 11 and 12 will be going through the draft year of a new curriculum.
“There’s going to be a new reporting order to go with new curriculum,” she said. “The district is always looking for ways to support teachers and students in new curriculums.”
She said the new curriculum aims to have reduced mandated learning outcomes; offer teachers more space to have creative instruction, re-evaluation of competencies; hands on learning with less pressure to get through all the subject matter; and allowing more teachers more opportunity to respond to students’ passions. Also, there will be greater emphasis on problem solving skills and critical thinking.
“They’ve been identified as the skills needed for a 21st Century workforce,” she said.
DAN WALTON
Regional Reporter
