The question of what happened in a closed-door school board meeting on Dec. 9 is just one of the issues raised in a petition to the Supreme Court of B.C. filed Tuesday.
The Town of Osoyoos and several parents are asking the court to quash School District 53’s decision to close Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS).
They are also asking for injunctions to delay any closure for at least a year.
The petition makes a number of arguments that the school district failed to follow its own school closure policy and failed to ensure an open and meaningful public consultation process.
“Unknown to the public, the board had already resolved to initiate the process for closing Osoyoos Secondary at an in camera meeting held Dec. 9, 2015,” the petition states. “The published minutes from that meeting state that the board ‘made a decision relating to facilities.’”
A report from staff also dated Dec. 9 said the board was proceeding with a consultation process to close one of the Osoyoos schools and it set the dates for the consultation meetings.
Nonetheless, the report from the Dec. 9, meeting, which contains the vague eight-word statement of what was decided, was not made public until the regular meeting of Jan. 27.
The agenda for a special meeting on Jan 13 to proceed with the closure consultation process simply listed the item of business as “Facilities Report,” but made no express reference to a school closure, the petition says.
Asked about what was decided at the Dec. 9 meeting, Bev Young, SD 53 superintendent of schools, said the decision was only to move the item forward to the next public meeting of the board to deliberate on the recommendations.
“The board was very cognizant that any deliberations regarding notice of such motions had to be in public,” Young said in an emailed reply.
The Dec. 9 meeting was the board’s first opportunity to look at the updated facilities plan along with the recommendations for each scenario, Young said.
“They asked questions for clarification, but did not deliberate on the recommendations and made no decision for any school closure,” Young stated.
The petition to the court argues that the board is required to adopt a school closure policy that provides for public consultation.
This consultation, it says, must include “fair consideration of the community’s input and an opportunity for the community to respond to a proposed school closure.
It must also include consideration of future enrolment growth in the community and possible alternative community use for all or part of the school, the petition said.
Under the board’s own policy, it is required to fully disclose all facts and information considered by the board.
This, the petition maintains, wasn’t followed.
Instead, the consultations were on a compressed timeframe. Recommendations were already approved at the in camera meeting before public consultation began.
Although roughly 40 per cent of students at OSS are from Punjabi-speaking families and many of their parents speak limited English, there was no translation or other means this community could participate. It was left to a community member to provide information at the Sikh gurdwara.
“All of the speakers at each of the public meetings spoke against closure of Osoyoos Secondary, and the written submissions provided to the district were similarly uniformly against the closure,” the petition said. “The majority of the board members listened without reaction to, or interaction with, any of the public speakers.”
The board’s estimate of cost savings from the school closure contained an erroneous estimate of the busing costs the board would incur by sending Osoyoos students to Oliver, the petition alleges.
An offer by the town to provide more than $1 million in financial assistance over three years “was rejected by the board without any reasonable grounds and without due consideration or consultation,” the petition states.
It also noted that prior to the closure bylaw receiving third reading, the board took steps during the week of April 19 to enroll students of OSS in Southern Okanagan Secondary School (SOSS) in Oliver.
In addition to the Town of Osoyoos, a four parents are included as petitioners.
These are Cristal Macor, Tammy Svendsen, Chad Jensen and Lindsay Vieira.
Affidavits from others include Brenda Dorosz, chair of the Save Our Schools committee, Mayor Sue McKortoff, town CAO Barry Romanko and Kuldeep Rai, an SOS member who represents the Indo-Canadian community.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
