Councillor Carol Youngberg speaks while Kuldeep Rai stands ready to interpret her remarks in Punjabi at a meeting Wednesday night to inform the Osoyoos-area Indo-Canadian community about efforts to establish an independent school. (Richard McGuire photo)
Members of the Osoyoos Community School Committee addressed concerns and questions from the Indo-Canadian community about plans to establish an independent high school in Osoyoos at an information meeting Wednesday evening at the Sonora Community Centre.
Brenda Dorosz, a member of the committee, acknowledged Wednesday evening that the committee believes the best fit for a partner would be Good Shepherd Christian School because it is based in Osoyoos and currently operates an elementary school.
The committee is exploring possible partnerships with existing independent schools and has also recently been in talks with a second potential partner, Studio 9, an arts school in Kelowna.
There are, however, some obstacles. The board of Good Shepherd has not yet agreed to a partnership, so at this point talks are still exploratory. Nonetheless, Principal Angela Westcott attended the meeting to answer questions and explain how such a partnership might work.
And there are concerns in the Indo-Canadian community, who are overwhelmingly of the Sikh religion, about the implications of attending a Christian school.
Westcott explained that the school follows the same B.C. curriculum as public schools. The religious component at the high school level, she said, would be treated as an entirely optional elective and students who opt out of this could have an alternative program.
She also explained that the school runs on an entirely separate budget from the church, so no funding provided to the school would go to the church.
The meeting, attended by nearly 70 people, was in a mix of English and Punjabi with committee member Kuldeep Rai interpreting back and forth. The presenters spoke English, but questions were posed in Punjabi and English.
Retired educator David Adamson, another committee member, reassured those attending that the committee’s goal is a high standard of education, meeting or exceeding provincial standards.
Adamson, who has been a teacher for 18 years and has been a principal in both public and independent schools, said he always aimed for slightly higher than the provincial standard, which his students said left them well prepared for post secondary education. The goal, he said, is to prepare students for a successful transition to post secondary schooling whether it be a trade school, college or university.
He also assured the audience that providing for students with special needs “is at the forefront of our thoughts.”
Osoyoos councillor Carol Youngberg, who is council’s liaison with the committee and has been involved in talks with the two potential partner schools, said there are some concerns with using the Sonora Community Centre for the new school because of the needs of other community users. She said other facilities in Osoyoos are also being looked at for suitability, through the Sonora Centre hasn’t been ruled out.
When one member of the audience asked if the independent school could go forward without a partner, Dorosz explained that it could be several years before it would get funding, possibly as many as four years before it could become a category 1 school, which receives half the per-student funding as public schools. The only way it could be up and operating by September is if it partners with an existing school, she said. A September opening would be achievable in a partnership with Good Shepherd, Dorosz added.
Westcott, of Good Shepherd, said students would be required to respect that it is a Christian school, but she stressed that those of other faiths or no religious faith are welcome and there would be no effort to convert them to Christianity.
“Respect, but not conversion,” she emphasized.
Watch the Osoyoos Times and OsoyoosTimes.com for updates to this story.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
