Stu Wells
A school board whose members are mostly from other communities should not have the power to close a school in Osoyoos, says Stu Wells, the former mayor.
“This is a decision to be made by Mike Bernier, the minister of education,” said Wells. “And further to that, I would really like to see Premier Christy Clark come to this town and tell us that they’re going to close the school in town. That’s whose decision it is. It’s that big a decision.”
Wells said he was considering raising this point at the first of two public consultation meetings Tuesday night about closing one of the town’s two public schools. That meeting was scheduled to take place after the Osoyoos Times goes to press.
Brenda Dorosz, chair of Save Our Schools (SOS), a citizens’ group fighting the school closures agrees with Wells that it should be a provincial decision.
“Is it fair for an elected school board, comprised of only two local trustees of the seven-member board, to make the final devastating decision?” Dorosz said in a letter to Bernier, which she copied to Premier Clark and Boundary-Similkameen MLA Linda Larson.
Dorosz said trustees representing a community such as Keremeos, for example, were not elected by Osoyoos residents and cannot be held accountable by voters.
Prior to the election of the B.C. Liberals, any school closure had to be approved by the minister of education. The B.C. Liberal government removed this requirement in 2002, making it easier for school districts to close schools. Since that time about 240 schools have closed across the province.
The Osoyoos Times last week requested an interview with MLA Larson on the issue, but she did not respond.
The MLA has kept a low profile on the issue, telling concerned parents in a form email: “This is a school board decision, not a provincial government one.”
In her only statement to Aberdeen Publishing, Larson told the Oliver Chronicle in an emailed statement shortly after the district’s Jan. 13 decision: “No one can afford to keep empty buildings operational. This issue has been on the books for five years. It could not be ignored forever. The school board will always do what’s best for the students.”
Wells, however, thinks it should be a provincial government decision.
“I really don’t think that school trustees should be making decisions that are so damaging to towns in all of British Columbia,” he said. “Nobody (in Osoyoos) voted for the trustees in Cawston, Keremeos, Oliver and OK Falls… Closing a school in a small town is completely different than closing a school where they have multiple schools. This is devastating to small towns.”
Osoyoos Trustee June Harrington was the only trustee to vote against the Jan. 13 motions to begin consultations on closing Osoyoos Secondary School or Osoyoos Elementary School.
The only other Osoyoos trustee, Marieze Tarr, chaired the meeting and didn’t vote. Tarr left Canada the following day on a previously planned vacation to South Africa.
Wells acknowledged that trustees from other communities have an incentive to close a school in Osoyoos in order to spare ones in their own community.
“It just seems like a strange concept on representation,” he said. “I wouldn’t use the word ‘gang up’ or anything, but ‘anybody but us.’”
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
Armed with information she’s gathered, Brenda Dorosz, chair of Save Our Schools (SOS), spoke to members of her group at a meeting last Thursday. (Richard McGuire photo)
