Dear Editor:

From what I have heard to this point – I’ve been out of the town for several weeks so I could be wrong about this – School District 53 board of trustees chair Marieze Tarr has said she hasn’t heard anything yet that would change her mind on the school closure issue.

This would suggest, of course, that she had already made up her mind and the meetings were simply held to allow citizens to vent.

But there is another idea that may allow the district and the ministry of education some time to assess another scenario.

I suggest she share the “transportation misery” by creating three “magnet schools” in the district for various students.

The high school in Oliver already has one of the best school/community theatres in the province, so let’s make SOSS a “fine arts” magnet school. All of the band, drama and various other creative arts programs could run out of that school.

The high school in Keremeos, given its proximity to Okanagan College in Penticton, could be the magnet school for the various trades.

All distributed learning (DL), Secondary School Apprenticeship (SSA) programs, and ACE-IT programs for Red Seal trade students could be run out of Similkameen Secondary Elementary School in Keremeos.

The high school in Osoyoos could then be left to champion the International Baccalaureate (IB) program for those who excel at the highest levels academically.Students in Osoyoos would be offered pre IB in the Grade 9 and 10 curriculum.

This IB concept, by the way, is completely different from the international student model I had previously proposed in another letter to the editor recently.

All three schools would still run full graduation programs and all schools could still run DL and advance placement programs if they wished, but the focus would be on strengthening the fine arts in one school, trades programs in another, and the third could promote IB.

By having their respective focus, the schools could then promote their programs to a wider South Okanagan population, which could in time improve our declining student numbers.

What many seem to forget is that the government of B.C. has been very clear about schools and districts creating their own “competitive edge” when it comes to school excellence.

Many districts have gravitated to this magnet school model.

Langley has a fine arts school, Kamloops has a trades program at Norkam Secondary and New Westminster has their Homelearners’ program with a site on Bowen Island of all places.

And most districts have been competing for Distributed Learning students for over a decade.

If our school district trustees could look again at some creative ways to grow, instead of shrink, based on the opportunities that are out there, I believe the Ministry of Education would be all for a postponement of closing any schools and we could have some time to implement other school-saving strategies.

However, if there can be no more discussion and we have lapsed into silence, then Tarr and all local trustees need to know I am prepared to pro-rate my own school taxes based on keeping the high school in Osoyoos open.

Thank you.

Brian Rothwell

Osoyoos, B.C.