By the time many readers see this paper, a decision should have been announced on whether or not one of the Osoyoos schools will be closing this year.

As we write this, however, the outcome of Wednesday evening’s special school board meeting is not yet known.

Throughout the public “consultation” process, it’s become clear that School District 53’s administration has intended all along to close one of the Osoyoos schools. And they’ve not been very open to proposed solutions that would save the schools.

Of course it’s the trustees and not the administration who ultimately make the decision.

Significantly, the committee that made recommendations leading to the Jan. 13 vote to begin the process of closing Osoyoos schools was the Finance and Facilities Committee.

That committee is chaired by Trustee Rob Zandee and its other members are Marieze Tarr and Rachel Allenbrand. Zandee and Allenbrand are both from Oliver.

This may provide a clue as to why only Osoyoos schools were considered for closure and why any decision about Tuc-el-Nuit Elementary School in Oliver wasn’t even put on the table.

As we write this, we remain hopeful that some of the other trustees can be persuaded to vote for a delay that would give stakeholders throughout the district a chance to explore options to keep the schools open.

If that happens, all sides must act immediately and with a sense of urgency to make that happen.

If, however, the pattern continues of the board being hostile to ideas that might interfere with plans to close an Osoyoos school,  the community must consider next steps.

In our view, accepting a decision to close either Osoyoos school should not be an option.

If the board decides to close one of our schools, there really are just a few options:

  • Legal action;
  • Pressuring the provincial government to intervene;
  • Starting an independent school in Osoyoos.

Legal action could be difficult. The courts will not overturn the school board’s decision based on the merits of the case. No amount of pleading about hardship to students, families and the community would sway the court.

But as the Supreme Court of B.C. case in 2008 showed, where the court overturned SD 71’s decision to close Cape Lazo school, a court could find that the closure process “appeared to be a sham.”

Pressuring the province to intervene is unlikely to succeed. In 2002, the B.C. Liberals removed the requirement for the Minister of Education to approve school board decisions to close a school.

Throughout this affair, Education Minister Mike Bernier and MLA Linda Larson have insisted this must be a local school board decision and it would be wrong for them to interfere.

Only if public pressure on them were intense from many districts in the province would the government possibly deviate from this hard line.

Some residents, notably Dr. Jason Bartsch, have floated the idea of an independent school.

While we support the public school system, this option would be preferable to having no secondary school in Osoyoos.

Lessons can be learned from Seven Summits Centre for Learning in Rossland, a not-for-profit independent school that took in a number of local students when School District 20 closed Rossland Secondary School in 2013.

This option, combined with home schooling or sending students out of the district, puts parents and students back in charge and removes the incentive for school districts to close schools.

It’s hard to anticipate the outcome of Wednesday’s meeting, but whatever happens, that meeting isn’t the end. It’s only the beginning.

We hope to see everybody come out to support our students and schools.