OSOYOOS TIMES-April 28, 2010

By Laurena Weninger – Osoyoos Times

Money will be tight for School District 53 next year, and some of the fat is already being trimmed.
At the district’s board meeting on April 21 in Oliver, Superintendent Juleen McElgunn gave an overview of the results that came out of the recent forums hosted by the district that were held in communities throughout the district.
This year’s budget needs to be finalized by the end of June and the board took the matter to the public to collect input on how to handle a shortage of cash.
At the meeting in Osoyoos in February, McElgunn adressed the audience at the Osoyoos Secondary School Mini Theatre.
“This year, we are going to have to cut deeper than we’ve ever had to cut previously,” she said.
The budget for 2009/2010 was already trimmed by $700,000, McElgunn explained, but it’s looking worse for next year.
Estimated revenue for next year is $23.8 million, she said.
But estimated expenses for the district are looking to be approximately $24.7 million.
That’s a budget shortfall of more than $850,000 – and that’s only if the B.C. Ministry of Education doesn’t “throw any curve balls,” McElgunn said.
The series of forums were held to get input from parents around the district about how to handle the shortfall.
Many of the suggestions that came up at the forums were presented at the April 21 meeting.
For example, one idea was to move the board office from its current location on 101st Street in Oliver and make it part of Southern Okanagan Secondary School (SOSS).
But that’s not going to help much, McElgunn said.
The office is on Crown land, meaning any profits from a sale wouldn’t belong to the district.
Amalgamating OSS and SOSS was another suggestion frequently made.
This would allow one of the buildings to be closed, cutting back on operating costs and saving a potential $500,000, according to the list of ideas.
But while that suggestion was brought up during the forums, Osoyoos parents did not want OSS to be the school that could close and Oliver parents did not favour the possible closing of SOSS.
“Everybody was pointing at another community,” McElgunn said.
Another option could be to amalgamate all three high schools, including Similkameen Elementary Secondary School.
That would mean two schools would close, saving an estimated $650,000 to $800,000.
“Yeah, I guess you could,” said McElgunn. “But is that a good educational decision?”
Transportation and busing came up more than once at the forums and this is an area that will likely be affected.
There are two “late bus runs” — one in Osoyoos and one in Okanagan Falls — that could be eliminated.
That will trim an estimated $24,000.
And the district has already decided that even though Osoyoos will still have a half-day kindergarten program, there will be no mid-day school bus run available.
A suggestion that was brought up at the Osoyoos forum was to cut busing completely, which would save an estimated $774,000, McElgunn said.
But that would pose a challenge to those families in the more rural areas, who may have trouble delivering their children to school.
Reducing water and other utility costs is also on the list of cost-cutting suggestions and some of that has already gone into action.
For example, heat is now going to be set to 21 C in schools and the air conditioning cooling system to 25 C.
Options to have a four-day school week or extra long weekends each month will likely not happen, McElgunn said.
“None of these would be ones I would recommend to you,” she said.
District staff will now go though the list of possibilities again and assign costs to all of the options.
Then board members will look at the list again and see what changes they could make.
School closures aren’t going to happen, at least for the 2010/2011 school year, said McElgunn, but the reality is that over the next few years that might change.
She said that due to less funding from the province due to declining enrolment, the district may receive $1.6 million fewer dollars over the next three years.
“It’s hard to know at this point (if schools would close),” McElgunn said. “Obviously it’s not something the board would choose to do.”
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