Vice-principal Diane Haddow (left) and principal Karen Sinclair are all set to go at Oliver Elementary School. Students return on Tuesday, Sept. 6. Photo by Lyonel Doherty
The survival of Osoyoos Secondary School means it will be business as usual in School District 53 come September.
“I always look forward to a positive school year,” said superintendent Bev Young. “We’ll be getting familiar with the revised curriculum and looking at how we can offer engaging instruction to students.”
In early July, immediately after it was announced Osoyoos Secondary School would remain open, the district began restaffing the schools right away – as if concerns of a closure never happened.
“We basically repeated the process that would have happened anyway,” she said.
Before the silver bullet that actually saved Osoyoos Secondary School, the provincial government dumped $118,000 into the district one month earlier. There was some early speculation that it would have been enough to save the school, but it ended up getting spent on giving students extra course offerings.
“That money that came in got put back to secondary school blocks that would have been reduced because of the low student-teacher ratio.”
Young said the money allowed for seven extra blocks to be added throughout the district; Similkameen received four, SOSS two and OSS one. Because it was announced late that OSS would stay open, the extra block it received would have otherwise been added to SOSS.
Young said the student count has increased at Oliver Elementary and Osoyoos Elementary, which she attributed partially to the closure of Good Shepherd Christian School.
Young said a revised curriculum is being worked on for students in kindergarten to Grade 9, and students in Grades 10, 11 and 12 will be going through the draft year of a new curriculum.
“There’s going to be a new reporting order to go with new curriculum,” she said. “The district is always looking for ways to support teachers and students in new curriculums.”
Young said the new curriculum aims to have reduced mandated learning outcomes; offer teachers more space to have creative instruction; re-evaluation of competencies; hands-on learning with less pressure to get through all the subject matter; and allowing more teachers more opportunity to respond to students’ passions. Also, there will be greater emphasis on problem solving skills and critical thinking.
“They’ve been identified as the skills needed for a 21st century workforce.”
Students return to school on Tuesday, Sept. 6.
By Dan Walton
