
It's official — three elementary schools in Penticton and Summerland will be permanently closed as part of a re-shuffling of facilities and resources in School District 67.
Following a two-month period of gathering public feedback, the SD67 school board green lit the new "Long-Range Facilities Plan" on Monday, an anticipated move following a special meeting last week.
The plan will see:
- Carmi Elementary closed, with impacted students moving to KVR Middle (to become KVR Elementary)
- Parkway Elementary closed, with impacted students moving to Skaha Lake Middle (to become Skaha Lake Elementary)
- Giant’s Head Elementary closed, with impacted students moving to Summerland Middle (to become Summerland Elementary)
- ConnectEd Facility closed, and the ConnectEd programs will be moved to a different
- location
The district explained that the plan is phased over three years, with no changes scheduled to elementary schools until June 2025, when the schools will close their doors for good.
Grade 8 students will still be welcomed to secondary schools in September 2024.
KVR and Skaha Lake middle schools will change into Kindergarten to Grade 7 facilities, and Summerland Middle School will change into a Kindergarten to Grade 6 facility.
Columbia Elementary will transition from a Princess Margaret feeder school to a Penticton Secondary feeder school, and some ConnectEd programming will be relocated to a new location.
District staff explained in January that schools are overall under capacity, and the district faces $1 million in what they called "unfunded inflationary cost pressures" each year.
According to district staff, enrolment in the district has decreased by 36 per cent since 2001, with no change in sight.
The elimination of middle schools and consolidation of students to fewer physical locations, they argue, will help the bottom line and ensure funds are still available for extracurricular programming like the arts, which often fall victim to budgetary pressures.
“The board is pleased to have finalized the Long-Range Facilities plan. The decision to close the schools was not an easy one but we believe this plan will ensure that we are making the best uses of our resources and planning for the future of the District,” said board chair James Palanio in a press release.
For more information on the full transition, click here.