This Friday, the public will have a chance to add their voice to the discussion about funding applications to keep Trout Creek and West Bench Elementary Schools open.
Board chair Linda Van Alphen said the district is now in possession of the criteria and other information to apply for funding from the new Rural Education Enhancement Program.
“We have the criteria, it is quite complex,” said Van Alphen, adding that a lot of the detail requested by the Ministry of Education is what they collected and distributed during the school closure consultations: long-range facilities plan, historical and projected enrolment figures, condition of the facilities.
“Due to the complexity of the questions required for the application process as well as a deadline date of June 24, the district will begin preparation prior to Friday’s meeting,” said Van Alphen. “The agenda for the meeting will be posted on the district’s website on Wednesday.”
Van Alphen said the application also requests information on how West Bench and Trout Creek see themselves as standalone communities.
“We are going to fill in the blanks and then we will bring it to the open meeting, which will be on Friday at 8 a.m.,” said Van Alphen.
That meeting will allow the public to comment on information the district is including in the applications. Van Alphen confirmed that West Bench Elementary wasn’t on the initial list of qualifying schools, though the district would be applying for funding for it as well.
“We asked them that 15 minutes after Christy Clark did the media release, we asked why isn’t West Bench on that list,” she said, noting that the information they received from the ministry encouraged school districts to apply for any school that was slated for closure and they felt met the criteria.
The Rural Education Enhancement Fund, aimed specifically at keeping schools like Trout Creek Elementary open, was announced June 15, with just a couple of weeks to go before the end of the school year, bringing with it the closure of three schools in the Okanagan Skaha School District.
The special public board of education meeting is scheduled for June 24 at 8 a.m., in the board room at the school board office on Jermyn Avenue in Penticton. Full details of the application process are available through the school
