Dear Editor:
Firstly, I want to congratulate editor Keith Lacey, reporter/photographer Richard McGuire and the team at the Osoyoos Times for the great job you have done in reporting, blow by blow, the agony that our community has gone through in the, now you have it, now you don’t scenario regarding Osoyoos Secondary School.
You have also accurately covered those in the community who have stepped up to the plate in trying to resolve the dilemma of losing our school.
This includes Mayor Sue McKortoff and members of town council and Brenda Dorosz, the founder of the Save Our School committee, and many others too numerous to list here.
Needless to say, it has been a stellar effort.
As this is written, we don’t yet know the final details of the special designation that Premier Christy Clark has indicated that our town falls under.
In the appointment of MLA Linda Larson as Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Education and Donna Barnett as Secretary Rural Development, they have been asked to come up with a new approach to funding rural schools that addresses the challenge that our school board faces with funding directly tied to student enrolment.
The very reason Osoyoos was designated as a Resort Municipality with access to additional funding from Victoria was the recognition of the unique makeup of a community primarily dependent on tourism for much of its livelihood.
If you look at the demographics of our community, you will see we have a greater than average senior/retirement population along with numerous young adults in the service industries who have young children who will go in to the school system at some point, but presently don’t count toward the criterion of senior student enrolment.
In other words, we need a unique circumstance that calls for different approach.
Because there are so many seniors who live in Osoyoos, it is inevitable that we will require, for example, more medical care. Can you visualize trying to recruit a doctor and his young family to come to our community to provide a critical need to us?
They fall in love with our town only to find out the children have to ride a school bus two hours a day, five days a week.
I don’t think so. The only item on the five-point list set out by Clark and her Liberal government that I could see that might impede special funding is the condition of the facility. Surely we can set up a schedule to renovate the school, which probably, for the most part, would entail the replacement of HVAC units and roofing
This could be done in phases.
After the emotional rollercoaster ride we have gone through, let’s hope that all involved in this review, the Premier, the Minister of Education, the special secretaries and the school board trustees will really put their hearts and minds into this challenge.
Our town deserves no less. Thank you for letting me express my thoughts.
Derek Noske
Osoyoos, B.C.
