Thanks to a dedicated group of community volunteers, an independent high school in Osoyoos is a big step closer to reality.
Brenda Dorosz has poured almost every waking hour these past four months into trying to keep K to 12 education in Osoyoos – first by fighting School District 53’s plan to close Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS) and bus our students to an overbuilt school in Oliver, and then by pulling together a group dedicated to starting an independent school here.
Others in the community have worked just about as hard and some of those are also now devoting their energies to the independent school.
Indeed, throughout the first phase of this battle, the fight with the school district, the Osoyoos community has been amazingly cohesive and dedicated. Countless people in Osoyoos deserve the highest praise.
Osoyoos town council and administration have also stood by the community, whether through the diplomacy of Mayor Sue McKortoff or the calling-it-like-it-is, no-holds-barred, direct approach of Coun. Mike Campol.
The big step forward came last week when Good Shepherd Christian School agreed to continue seeking a partnership with the Osoyoos Independent School (OIS) committee, which could result in the school offering the full range of K to 12 here in Osoyoos.
There will be those in the community who have concerns about this, and those concerns must be listened to and respected. But hopefully they won’t be overblown.
Good Shepherd is a Christian school, but a large number of the current OSS students come from backgrounds of other faiths or no faith.
In particular, a very large minority of OSS students are Indo-Canadians of the Sikh faith.
Our first choice, like that of most members of the community, would be that OSS remain open as a public and secular school, leaving it to individuals to practice their faiths in the places of worship of their choosing.
But School District 53, with the backing of the provincial government, has removed that option – unless the town’s current court petition is successful.
The limited choice now is that students be uprooted and shipped to Oliver or that they remain in Osoyoos at an independent school.
The process of starting an independent school is arduous, however, and the only practical option is to partner with an existing school. Here, the only choice is Good Shepherd.
To its credit, Good Shepherd has gone out of its way to reassure Indo-Canadians and others with concerns that students will be given the standard B.C. curriculum, that the religious component will be an optional elective, and there will be no attempt to convert students.
Before an independent school can get off the ground, however, two big issues must be dealt with – finding a facility and obtaining funding.
The town now is the key to both. With SD 53 still controlling the OSS facility, and obviously not wanting an independent school to succeed, that building isn’t available. And that leaves only the Sonora Centre, which is used by other community members.
The town was prepared to offer SD 53 $352,000 a year for three years to keep all 230 OSS students in Osoyoos. It’s by no means certain they would be prepared to offer the same for an independent school that might have just 100 high school students.
Council has requested a staff report on these options and it is prepared to put the matter to a referendum.
This prudence is wise given that there may be differences of opinion in the community.
OIS plans a major fundraising campaign and aims to keep tuitions affordable for all. And there would be provincial funds.
The use of public municipal money, however, needs a strong community consensus – keeping in mind that time is of the essence for this project to succeed.
