Recommendations for potential school closures will come to the Okanagan Similkameen School District this week.
A special board of education meeting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday will be a review of the 2015 facilities plan, which was directed to be completed in the fall to update the 2010 facilities plan. At the meeting, staff will be providing recommendations for potential school closures.
When asked, the school board declined to comment until after they had reviewed the recommendations at the meeting.
Factors included in the recommendations will be the school Facility Condition Index ratings, enrolment projections, savings by closing a school and necessary cost to upgrade schools.
The 2015 plan forecasts an enrolment decline for the next 10 years. An audit of each building in the school district shows that out of seven schools, five were given the rating of poor. It defines that rating as not meeting requirements, needing immediate attention required to buildings systems that are meeting the end of their life cycle and a high risk of failure of some systems. This includes Cawston Primary, Okanagan Falls Elementary, Oliver Elementary, Osoyoos Secondary and Tuc-El-Nuit in Oliver.
The report states Okanagan Falls Elementary is approximately 50 years old and given the enrolment and the condition rating, government funding to improve the facility is “unlikely.” The report said the school generates a small community grant of $150,000 that would not continue if the school was closed and there is potential for existing students to transfer to Oliver or Kaleden/Penticton.
The school district is currently in a structural deficit of $530,000 and the executive summary of the 2015 report said “if it does not take proactive steps to reduce operating expenses, it could have a structural deficit of $1.4 million by the 2017-2018 school year.”
In the 2010 report it was recommended that Cawston Primary “close soon” and students be sent to Similkameen Elementary Secondary School, Similkameen Elementary Secondary convert to a kindergarten to Grade 12 school, Osoyoos Secondary close in a few years and send students to South Okanagan Secondary School, Okanagan Falls to close soon, and Oliver Elementary renovate. The plan suggested no changes to Osoyoos Elementary and Tuc-el-Nuit (but to re-evaluate in five years).
