Salmon Arm is not fairly represented on the school board. Despite the fact that students from Salmon Arm make up 50 per cent of the population of the school district, only two of the nine trustees are from Salmon Arm.
Armstrong students account for approximately 25 per cent of the population, but there are two trustees representing Armstrong/Spallumcheen. The remaining 25 per cent of the students are represented by five trustees from the following communities: Sicamous/Malakwa, Enderby, Falkland/Deep Creek/Ranchero, North Shuswap, and Carlin/Sorrento.
Vernon and Kelowna’s School Districts have seven trustees each, while we have nine.
Eliminating two trustees from our district would provide a mild cost savings. More importantly, it would even out the representation of small versus larger communities in the region.
I propose that the trustee for North Shuswap be amalgamated with Carlin/Sorrento. Falkland and Deep Creek could be included in the Armstrong area, while Ranchero should be considered part of Salmon Arm. That would bring us down to seven trustees, which would even out the representation on the school board.
Times are tough in School District #83. Small schools are facing closures. Programs such as literacy intervention, counselling, and speech-language are facing cuts.
The School Board has difficult decisions to make. It is more crucial than ever that the communities who are represented on the board should have a more even number of voting members.
Megan Brooke
