Students and parents were given false hope when it was suggested that Tuesday’s funding announcement could result in OSS staying open. But that’s not the case, says the school district. File photo by Richard McGuire
It would cost millions of dollars to upgrade Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS) and the $118,000 given to School District 53 earlier this week by Boundary-Similkameen MLA Linda Larson won’t change the board of trustees’ mind to close down the high school, said board chair Marieze Tarr.
After meeting Tuesday evening, only hours after Larson announced a contribution of just over $118,000 to the school district, the trustees rejected Larson’s call to re-open the books and come up with a solution to keep OSS open.
Tarr announced Thursday that the board of trustees appreciate the funding from the provincial government, but it wasn’t nearly enough funding for them to reconsider their position to close the high school in Osoyoos.
On Tuesday morning, Larson announced the $118,000 for School District 53 was part of $25 million “in administrative savings” given back to school districts across the province.
“Unfortunately, the savings will not be enough to overcome the overwhelming financial and academic rationale for the closure of Osoyoos Secondary School,” said Tarr. “We know that the community, parents and students were hopeful in the last couple of days that the closure of our school would be reversed.
“This has been an emotional rollercoaster for students, parents and families and we regret that. Since 2010 we have been concerned about declining enrolment trends, less academic choices for students and challenges in balancing our budget.
“We have reduced spending by more than a million dollars and have shared our concerns with municipalities, parents and community members through community forums and as late as last year we held meetings with RDOS and councils from all communities in our district.
“We listened to the community of Osoyoos at two public meetings where we gathered input with regards to closing the school and after considering all the input along with financial, geographic and academic consideration we made the final decision to close the school.”
The trustees had no choice but to close OSS because the issue with declining enrolment – and subsequent reduced funding from the Ministry of Education – is only going to get worse, said Tarr.
“The main reasons for closing the school is declining enrolment at both OSS and SOSS and this decline will continue for the next six years,” he said. “Osoyoos Secondary School is an old building built in late 1970’s and has aging mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems in desperate need of repair.
“Upgrades to the systems will cost in the millions of dollars and will not be funded by the Ministry unless the building is at 95 per cent capacity capacity.
“Due to the low enrolment, it has been challenging to provide students with academic choice and now by combining the two schools, we will be providing students with increased variety and flexibility of course offerings. “Students will be able to take advanced placement courses (university courses) in World History, English Literature and Math and there will be less reliance on distance learning to meet graduation requirements. What people might not know is that many students have had to do online courses to graduate. There will also be Computer courses such as coding and digital arts.”
The money provided by the Ministry on Tuesday will go to frontline services, said Tarr.
“We are very grateful to the Ministry for this extra money and will use it in the spirit of the intent of the announcement, which asked that the savings be redirected to front line services to students.
“We will use the funds to add back secondary teacher time that we had intended to reduce to balance the budget.”
This will result in even more courses available to the district’s secondary school students, she said.
“The remaining funds will be redirected to supplies and services to schools,” she said.
Larson said she will be meeting with trustees before next Wednesday’s regular school board meeting to have further discussions and still believes there’s time to save OSS from closure.
At no time did she ever state the $118,000 provided by the province would resolve the funding issues the school district faces, said Larson.
“It was just another way of opening the door to resume talks to try and find a solution,” said Larson on Thursday.
It’s going to take continued and intensive talks between trustees, the Town of Osoyoos, the Ministry of Education and her office to try and find a solution to keep OSS open, she said.
The final decision on the future of OSS remains with the trustees, said Larson.
“I can’t make them keep the school open,” she said. “It’s not up to me. The final decision ultimately remains with the school board.”
Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff said Thursday morning she is not surprised at all the trustees have refused to re-open discussions – or revisit the district’s budget for the 2016-17 school year (which was approved last week) – to try and keep OSS open.
“Quite frankly, it doesn’t surprise me one bit,” she said. “They turned down the town’s offer of $1.1 million for three years, so thinking the province’s funding of $118,000 just doesn’t make any sense.”
With less than one month to go before the doors at OSS are scheduled to be locked up for good, McKortoff said this is an extremely tense time for her, members of town council and all local residents who would be negatively affected by the closing of the high school.
“Time is of the essence and we need to get things done quickly, but you also want to do things right, which is very difficult with so little time to work with,” she said. “I hate to see the hopes of the community get raised over and over again, only to have those hopes dashed. I just don’t know if anything is going to come from all of this … and I find it all very frustrating. We’ve never had to deal with anything like this before.”
McKortoff said there’s little to report on the town’s legal action taken against the Ministry of Education or heard any response from School District 53 administration over possibly leasing the OSS facility to run an independent school.
“We’re still waiting to hear from our lawyers … and we’re still waiting to hear from the school district,” she said.
As leader of this community, McKortoff said all she and her fellow members of council can do, is “take things one day at a time.
“I’ve never been involved in such a mess before and sometimes you just don’t know what to do, but all we can do is deal with things as they come because that’s what we do. We will continue trying to deal with things as they come up.”
Despite another setback, McKortoff said the fight to try and keep OSS open isn’t over.
“All we can do now is wait until Ms. Larson meets with the trustees next week and go from there.”
Tarr and other trustee were not asked to be part of the funding announcement on Tuesday as Larson commented they have already been subjected to a storm of criticism since announcing that OSS would close permanently back in late April.
After announcing the funding, Larson repeatedly said she believes the trustees still have time to do what is necessary to keep OSS open.
“I expect them to do the right thing and keep the school open,” said Larson. “Between the money that I have announced today and other possibilities, I believe we have a viable plan to keep the school open.”
More than 100 local residents gathered outside town hall on Tuesday morning in eager anticipation that Larson would be providing a significant funding announcement that would guarantee that OSS would remain open for at least the 2016-17 school year.
When Larson announced the provincial contribution of just over $118,000, many in the crowd could be seen shaking their heads in disappointment.
“I would certainly have liked more money,” said McKortoff. “But the bottom line is we have to try and keep the school open.”
McKortoff said she, like Larson, is willing and able to meet with trustees at any time in the coming weeks to come up with a plan to keep OSS open.
Larson also announced on Tuesday that School District 53 also has a “significant budget surplus” that should be directed towards ensuring OSS remains open, but she would not divulge that figure or which area of the overall budget that money would come from.
School Districts across the province have made real efforts to reduce spending on their administrative costs over the past several years and those efforts have made it possible to help flow those resources into classrooms and services for students, said Larson.
Brenda Dorosz, the founder of the Osoyoos Independent School Committee, said she was deeply disappointed with Tuesday’s funding announcement.
“They (trustees) turned down more than $350,000 a year from the town … I don’t see how another $118,000 is going to make a difference when it comes to keeping our school open,” she said.
“It’s just not enough,” said Dorosz. “I don’t have any faith in them (trustees) to make the right decision.”
By Keith Lacey
