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Central Okanagan  

School conference still in limbo

School District 23 is appealing to the compassionate side of teachers union leader, Jim Iker.

The district has sent a letter to Iker asking for permission to use Kelowna Secondary School and some district buses for the Canadian Student Leadership Conference, slated to be held in Kelowna starting next Tuesday.

The conference will bring together some 900 students and councillors from all over the country.

The district had planned to use KSS for the conference but now finds itself looking at alternate, expensive sites.

To date, the district has not heard back from Iker.

"We haven't heard from Mr. Iker directly but we have heard he has issued a statement to the Canadian Federation of Teachers that the conference is behind picket lines," says SD23 Secretary/Treasurer, Larry Paul.

Paul says if the answer is no they do have contingency plans in place to move the conference off-site, however, if the answer is yes they would like to know sooner rather than later.

"We can turn it back into KSS with 48 hours notice but the issue is trying to make sure we have all those contingencies in place and the closer we get the more obligated we are to those contingencies," says Paul.

"Even if we pull out we may have to pay for certain aspects of them."

The conference runs from Tuesday through Saturday of next week.



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