PENTICTON — The excited sounds of kids during recess ringing out in the playground as usual on Thursday, but for many, the devastating news of looming school closures dampens the mood.
“When I found out, I got really sad. I did cry a bit,” says Jamie Nelson, a fifth grader of West Bench Elementary.
READ MORE: Decision day for Okanagan Skaha schools closures
Last night, the Okanagan-Skaha School Board made a decision on how to deal with low enrollment rates and a growing deficit.
Trustees voted to shut down three schools at the end of this school year.
West Bench Elementary and McNicoll Park Middle School in Penticton, and Trout Creek Elementary in Summerland will be closed, with students to be enrolled to other area schools this fall.
The board chair says the three schools were chosen because there aren’t enough students.
“All three of them, they have a small number of students, they have a larger capacity and they’re just not meeting the capacities of the schools,” says chair Linda Van Alphen.
But one lone trustee voted to maintain the status quo, urging the board to delay a decision until budget talks.
“It mystifies me, as a former teacher and principal, how you could take children from kindergarten to grade five, out of their neighbourhood school and bus them across town,” says Bruce Johnson, a school trustee.
Most students from West Bench will be bused to Carmi Elementary. Future and current students of the McNicoll Park will go to one of the two other middle schools. The three remaining schools in Summerland will be reconfigured to accommodate Trout Creek’s closure.
Students at West Bench say the decision will hurt their neighbourhood.
“Supersizing our schools, putting elementary students in an at-capacity, kindergarten-to-grade-three school is not small community. It’s not what we want for our kids,” says Meghann Pleasance, a parent of two children who attend Trout Creek Elementary.
Once students move to other schools, some teachers and staff members will likely lose their job.
“What’s really unfortunate is if schools were properly funded, if education was properly funded, this wouldn’t be happening,” says Lyslea Woodsword, president of the local teachers’ union.
Some parents are still hoping to change the school board’s mind; they will have until the end of this month to make their pleas.
On March 30th, the school closure decision will go through a third reading.
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