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The NDP's education critic is heading to the Okanagan and Shuswap regions this week to hear from parents and teachers of schools threatened with closure.
Rob Fleming will visit Osoyoos, Penticton, Armstrong and Salmon Arm, meeting with school trustees, attending forums on school closures and visiting schools.
Fleming blames provincial government funding cuts for the threat to some area schools.
“Christy Clark’s government is starving our school system,” Fleming says in a press release. “To date, 200 schools in this province have closed on this government’s watch. It’s unprecedented, and it’s baffling when provincial student enrolment is actually growing.”
Figures supplied by the NDP show over the last two years, the province has cut $54 million from school districts' administrative spending.
“Christy Clark completely ignored the bipartisan finance committee when it recommended ‘stable, sustainable and adequate funding’ for school districts,” Fleming says. “Instead, she put a billion dollars into tax cuts for millionaires, while continuing to cut $54 million out of school district budgets. That’s not stable, sustainable or adequate, and our kids deserve better.”
In Osoyoos, two proposals being considered are to close Osoyoos Secondary School and transfer students to Southern Okanagan Secondary School in Oliver or close Osoyoos Elementary, transfer students to OSS, making it a K-8 school, and transfer grades 10 to 12 to SOS.
Within School District 67, schools proposed for closure are West Bench, Carmi, Parkway and McNicoll Middle in Penticton and Giant's Head in Summerland.
In the North Okanagan Shuswap, Armstrong Elementary and Silver Creek Elementary are proposed for closure.
Fleming will visit Osoyoos March 8, Penticton March 9 and Armstrong and Salmon Arm March 10.
He is expected to attend the following public meetings:
- March 8: School District 53 school closure consultation, 7 p.m., Sonora Community Centre gym
- March 9: School District 67 school closure consultation, 7 p.m., IMC building.
