Dear Editor:

The information provided to the public from School District 53’s board of trustees on how they got to this crossroads, proved to be very thorough, factual and most telling of their five-year journey.

The trustees are in an unenviable position to say the least, as quoted from one of them who said recently, “We didn’t take on the job to close schools!”

As a citizen and, therefore, a taxpayer, I appreciate and applaud their due diligence.

The reality of school budgets in this province is 85 per cent of those budgets are taken up with salaries and benefits. This is set in stone.

However, when you add to that the millions of dollars required to keep buildings up to code year after year, and a chart of continuous declining enrolment, this is a challenge that must be met.

The money pot is not endless and there seems to be many who refuse to understand this collectively.

Criticizing the efforts of these trustees with terms like “devastating”, “lack of openness”, “profound impact”, and “losing our identity” have been expressed in relation to residents who live in the Town of Osoyoos.

Words like these are, in my opinion, gross exaggerations and used to arouse emotions.

As well, suggestions that trustees conclusions have been influenced by where they presently reside, is disingenuous at best and very unhelpful.

It smacks of an “us” and “them” mentality like the old Osoyoos/Oliver competitive days.

I would offer an alternative perspective.

It’s my belief that Southern Okanagan Secondary School (SOS) in Oliver can provide a full range of courses in a state-of-the-art facility.

It has available special support teams that offer counselling services, an expanded and modern library, teacher assistant needs and special education teachers.

Local students will continue to live in Osoyoos so is busing to school truly that much of a deterrent?

I am a survivor of the school bus days from Osoyoos to Oliver more than 30 years ago. It was about half the distance, but I rode the bus every day from Grade 1 to 12 getting to school in Oliver.

During that time, I somehow managed to play basketball and volleyball on the school teams from Grade 6 to Grade 12 and participated in other after school activities often and regularly. During Grades 10, 11, and 12, I held a part time job.

Then I went to college and rode the city bus for another two years. I survived and indeed thrived. Why? Well because of the “human factor.”

First and foremost, I would credit the school administrators, teachers and  staff.

The school administrators made sure there was a “late” bus, one north, one south, and for special events there were sometimes two.

Schedules adjusted over the years based on needs.

Because I was a regular and everyone cared, I remember the bus driver waiting a few extra minutes for me as I dove out from the gym.

I know he took the time to ask others on the bus if they knew if I was on my way. I remember I missed that bus on more than one occasion and then going downtown and sitting at a family friend’s store and catching a ride home with them, late and tired.

The teachers wanted you to have the best school experience you could have within the bounds of catching that bus.

I remember teachers giving me a ride to catch a pre arranged ride home. I remember office staff and other teachers helping me get a ride organized when somehow nothing was working that day.

My parents wanted me to be involved in everything I could at school and did their best to facilitate that happening.

It was not easy, it was not perfect, but they talked to each other, they helped and encouraged. I did not feel in anyway that living “out of town” was an impossible mountain because the “human factor” was real.

I realize the world is different in so many ways that affect this scenario. Everybody is busy, too busy, but we cannot throw good money after bad.

The Indo-Canadian community has a large percentage of students in both Oliver and Osoyoos. They are an example of family and community stewardship and I believe they could be leaders in making this transition workable.

How could Osoyoos senior students now and in the foreseeable future receive the best education?

I have already pointed out SOSS has been accredited by public educators as a state-of-the-art facility and it can continue to evolve with more students and, therefore, more dollars.

It can and will give students wider choices in their careers because the post secondary preparation will be up to date and available.

When I headed for college, I immediately upgraded from a business school program to a full business administration program.

I had all the prerequisites right from my high school.

This is an example of a “student benefit” not to be dismissed lightly.

I know not everyone that went to SOSS when there was no OSS will relate to how the mesh of the human factor was so woven into the fabric of growing up like it was for me.

I would say to all the naysayers that this is a 30-minute drive, twice a day, where heads will be down, working on a screen of some sort (homework maybe) and preparing for a future career with the best possible advantage.

This is not about Osoyoos losing its identity.

This is not a threat to Osoyoos becoming a retirement community because we ARE a retirement community.

There has been no change of that attitude long before the school district began seeing a pattern of falling enrolment.

Tourism is a bonus to a community but it does not fill schools.

Someone said the closure of OSS would be  “disruptive” to Osoyoos, which is such a common word to use.

In this case, over the past decade, it has been used  too often, to prevent those very things that could have given Osoyoos the opportunity to bring in long term jobs and prevent what is happening now with the possible closure of our high school.

I say to our local town council, you can’t go back in time and I hope you are paying attention.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to voice my opinion on what has become a very important issue across this region.

Lynne Greenwood

Osoyoos, B.C.