Brenda Dorosz, right, wants School District 53 to dip into a fund of surpluses from previous years to keep Osoyoos schools open. The school district wants to keep the money to balance deficits in future years. Pictured here, she talked recently with CBC Radio host Chris Walker and Trustee June Harrington about the threatened school closure. (Richard McGuire file photo)
Some Osoyoos parents had their hopes raised that money had been found in School District 53’s revised budget last week to save Osoyoos schools from potential closure.
School district officials, however, say the money was not newly found and has already been spoken for.
Parents got their hopes up when Brenda Dorosz, chair of the Save Our Schools committee, posted to Facebook last Wednesday that the revised budget contained a surplus of more than $1 million.
The following day she clarified that after talking with school district officials, she learned there is in fact a projected surplus of $813,465 that can be used for operations.
In fact, explained Lynda Minnabarriet, secretary treasurer with SD 53, the board has known all along that it has this surplus. It wasn’t newly found money.
“The board wishes to retain some surplus for future years,” she said.
The money is a surplus that was accumulated in previous years, which the school district has been using recently to avoid operating deficits.
In the 2016 budget, the school district had to take $617,798 out of this fund in order to avoid going into deficit.
Still, Dorosz thinks the school board could dip further into the remaining $813,465 in the fund to avoid having to close an Osoyoos school.
“That’s my opinion,” she said. “But it’s up to them to vote on that, but I think it’s an option.”
The school district says it currently has a structural deficit of $530,000.
“If it does not take proactive steps to reduce operating expenses, (it) could have a structural deficit of $1.4 million by the 2017-18 school year,” the district says in its 2015 Facilities Plan.
So while the board may wish to keep a cushion against growing future funding shortfalls, Dorosz isn’t the only one wanting the board to dip into its accumulated surplus.
In a recent letter to the Osoyoos Times, former Osoyoos Mayor Stu Wells called on the board to dip into its reserves to postpone the closure for a year, allowing time to find other savings.
Meanwhile, Minnabarriet clarified several other issues that have been in contention.
In a recent letter to the school district, Dorosz challenged the school district’s claim in its facilities plan that Southern Okanagan Secondary School (SOSS) in Oliver has a capacity of 700.
She pointed to a news release from the Ministry of Education after renovations to the school were completed putting the capacity at 550 students.
This number is critical because the school’s 2015 enrolment is 431, which means if the lower capacity is accurate, there wouldn’t be space to take about 230 students from Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS) without expanding.
Both Minnabarriet and a Ministry of Education spokesperson now confirm, however, that the 700 figure is accurate, meaning SOSS has space for about 270 more students.
Minnabarriet explained that 550 was the capacity in the original building design, but the school board was able to make revisions.
It added three classrooms and had additional space on the lower level that wasn’t part of the 500 figure.
In response to another question, Minnabarriet also explained that when a school district sells property from a closed school, whether the money stays with the district or goes to the province depends on the title.
Some properties have restrictions that they return to the Crown upon disposal if they are no longer required for educational purposes, she said.
If the district owns the property outright, proceeds stay with the district and can be used for capital projects – but not operations.
OSS is Crown granted, Minnabarriet said. Osoyoos Elementary School, however, mostly belongs to the district, except a portion that is Crown granted.
If a school is closed, the district is allowed to rent or lease closed facilities, Minnabarriet said.
Only when a property is sold or disposed of does the issue of returning funds to the Crown come into play, she added.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
