Osoyoos Councillor C.J. Rhodes made a passionate plea to school trustees to do the right thing, but their votes were already decided and the 14 people who spoke failed to sway them as the board voted 4-3 to close Osoyoos Secondary School. (Richard McGuire photo)
Osoyoos Secondary School is officially shutting down.
The closure was made official April 27, when the board of School District 53 gave final approval to a bylaw that will see the school shuttered and its students bussed to Southern Okanagan Secondary School in Oliver, beginning next year.
The board voted 4-3 to pass the bylaw, with Trustees Rachel Allenbrand, Rob Zandee, Debbie Marten and Sam Hancheroff voting in favour, and Myrna Coates, June Harrington and Chairperson Marieze Tarr voting against.
Those trustees who voted in favour of the bylaw pointed mainly to the more than a million dollar shortfall in the board’s budget as the primary reason. Tarr and Hancheroff both said that, in the face of declining enrolment, the board has slashed as many periphery services as it can, and any more cuts outside the school closure will be directly from the classroom.
More than 120 people squeezed into the boardroom to watch the meeting, which saw the trustees frequently struggling to be heard over jeers from the crowd. Several times Tarr called for order, as raucous members of the public shouted and booed over trustee statements.
Fourteen members of the public addressed the board during a 30-minute question period, most of whom criticized the trustees for their handling of the situation, or pleaded with them to keep the school open.
Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff addressed the trustees, holding what she called an affidavit from a local parent, ready to be signed. She said Osoyoos council was in consultation with lawyers and prepared to pursue legal action to keep the school open. She later suggested this might come in the form of a court injunction.
