NDP Education Critic Rob Fleming was guest speaker at the Rotary Club of Osoyoos last Thursday, the day after School District 53 trustees voted to close Osoyoos Secondary School. He argued that Education Minister Mike Bernier should withhold approval of the closure of OSS. (Richard McGuire photo)
Education Minister Mike Bernier should refuse to sign off on the closure of Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS), says Rob Fleming, the NDP education critic, who spent two days in Osoyoos last week.
Fleming spoke at last Wednesday’s special school board meeting where trustees approved third reading of a bylaw to close OSS effective June 30.
He also met with parents, students, community leaders and he was guest speaker at the Rotary Club of Osoyoos last Thursday.
“The next step in the process is the minister actually has to formally sign off on every school closure in the province,” Fleming said in an interview last Wednesday, minutes after the board voted. “This government has treated it like it’s a rubber stamp, but in days past the reason was for ministerial accountability, but also to give the minister the ability to adjudicate whether everything was procedurally fair and whether this closure is in the interests of the town and the district.”
The following day Fleming made a similar point to Rotarians.
“I think the minister should look over the 500 pages of submissions that Osoyoos residents have made,” Fleming said. “That the business community made, that students made, before he puts his pen to that paper.”
An intervention by Bernier, however, is unlikely since the minister has insisted since January that the local school board alone should make the decision and it would be inappropriate for the province to interfere.
Fleming pointed to the inconsistency of the provincial government’s messages.
He told Rotarians that he returned to his hotel after last Wednesday’s emotionally wrenching board meeting, phoned his wife, poured himself a stiff drink and turned the TV on to some sports to unwind.
The first commercial that came on was an ad from the B.C. government costing taxpayers $15 million that brags about the province having the strongest economy in Canada, he said.
This contrasts with the government’s messages in the legislature that it can’t invest more in education and health care until the economy is growing, Fleming said.
“It’s a completely different message from the one that they are spending $15 million to tell us over the television,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to have a mixed message like that.”
The opposition MLA noted that B.C. is the third richest province in Canada, but its per-student funding of public education is the second lowest in the country. The result, he said, is school closures and the angst and disruption that these decisions bring.
“When you have a viable school that serves this community, that serves the future plans for this community, essentially being ripped out from this community, you’ve got a problem in British Columbia,” he told Rotarians. “You’ve got a complete failure to align what should be the economic responsibilities, aspirations and vision to what is happening on the ground in actual regional economies and places where British Columbians live.”
Communities like Osoyoos have many opportunities in this age of mobility to attract skills, talent and investment, but they must be able to provide basic public services such as education, Fleming said.
He pointed out that the decline in school enrolment is reversing with overall net growth across the province this year for the first time, even if this growth is uneven.
And he predicted that with many people being priced out of the housing market in the Lower Mainland, the population of the South Okanagan would see increases.
Seven of 10 provinces have seen enrolments decline, he said, but other provinces haven’t cut public education the way B.C. has.
B.C.’s education budget only grew by 0.45 per cent, compared to overall economic growth of 2.2 per cent and an inflation rate of 1.9 per cent, Fleming said.
Meanwhile, the province is downloading costs onto school districts for services such as broadband computer networking that should be considered a necessary component of 21st century education, he added.
School districts have been ordered to make $54 million in “administrative” cuts to “low-hanging fruit,” he said.
“There’s no such thing as low-hanging fruit in the education system in the province of B.C.,” Fleming said. “That’s a euphemism for closing schools, cutting teaching positions and stripping out more resources from K to 12 education. It shouldn’t be happening.”
Speaking to the school board before last Wednesday’s vote, Fleming expressed sympathy for the financial position trustees found themselves in, but he urged them to “think about what is right, look in your hears to hear what this community has said to you.
“I don’t know what more the community could have done,” Fleming told the trustees. “Osoyoos has got to be the textbook and template for how a community comes together. Everybody is on the same page. This is a diverse community and everybody thinks the same way on saving the school.”
Fleming’s visit to Osoyoos and Oliver last week was his second during the school crisis.
He also attended and spoke at the March 8 “public consultation” meeting. He has criticized MLA Linda Larson for avoiding these meetings.
Fleming has repeatedly raised the issue of closing OSS in the legislature.
Fleming told the Rotarians that the last time a provincial election in B.C. was fought on education was 1986, before he was old enough to vote.
“If the next election is primarily about education, great,” he said. “Bring it on.”
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
Mike Bernier, B.C. Minister of Education
NDP Education Critic Rob Fleming (second from right) meets with parents, Osoyoos Secondary School PAC representatives and Save Our Schools committee members at Troy’s Restaurant Monday prior to the school board vote to close OSS. From left are Michelle Nehring, Adrienne Mailey, Brenda Dorosz, Chad Jensen, Fleming and Len McLean. (Richard McGuire photo)
NDP Education Critic Rob Fleming (second from right) and Mayor Sue McKortoff (right) congratulate Osoyoos Secondary School students Julianna Riznek and Natalia Ibanez for taking the intitiative to create a “Thank You” banner for the Osoyoos community. (Richard McGuire photo)
