Last week’s school board meeting was a rude awakening for many people.
Closing schools where our children learn should not be on the agenda in any district, but sadly it is.
Growing deficits and declining enrolments are placing boards of education between a rock and a hard place. And some people tend to point the finger at them as the culprit.
But as long as they demonstrate fiscal prudence, it’s not their fault that they have to consider closing your neighbourhood school.
Luckily, Oliver schools have been spared from the potential axe for now, thanks to the Okanagan Correctional Centre and the hope that it will help improve enrolment figures. But Oliver Elementary and Tuc-el-Nuit school may find themselves back on the chopping block if that hope is dashed.
We feel for the community of Osoyoos that is faced with potentially losing its high school or elementary school.
If Osoyoos Secondary closes, the students will lose their sense of community by having to leave town to attend SOSS in Oliver. If Osoyoos Elementary closes, they’ll have to herd K-9 into Osoyoos Secondary and bus Grade 10-12 students here.
It will be interesting to see if Town of Osoyoos officials and parents will be able to sway the board to look elsewhere for savings.
But there’s really nowhere else to look since the majority of the budget is spent on instruction (teacher salaries and benefits).
While MLA Linda Larson is correct in saying that money for school districts is based on enrolment, she won’t tell you how much education funding has been cut by the provincial government over the years.
If this isn’t the case, that means every school trustee in BC is a liar.
It’s so easy for the government to tell school boards to cut their budgets, even close schools if they have to. But provincial officials are not the ones facing a crowd of parents and teachers to deliver the bad news.
Secretary-treasurers will tell you that their districts have been subject to numerous cuts in education funding. These cuts have directly impacted everything from school supplies to support staff. And still, boards are forced to come up with more cuts to their budgets.
As was quickly answered at last week’s board meeting, submitting a deficit budget to the province will get you fired.
We think’s it’s time that districts rise up and say enough is enough – you cannot force us to close our schools and compromise the education of our students.
How about close a few government departments – that should take care of the $500,000 structural deficit that we’re facing.
Lyonel Doherty, editor
