‘What a waste of money’: School Board 53 frustrated over legal battle

OLIVER — The fight to save Osoyoos Secondary School came to an end on Thursday, but the Okanagan Similkameen School Board is dealing with the aftermath of a legal battle .

The school board voted in favour of accepting a provincial grant to keep the high school open.

READ MORE: ‘We never lost faith’: Three South Okanagan schools accept funding to stay open

In May, the Town of Osoyoos and four parents filed an application for a Supreme Court injunction to delay the proposed closure for a year.

To the surprise of British Columbians, the province announced last-minute funding in mid-June that could potentially save rural schools from shutting their doors forever.

Board chairperson Marieze Tarr said the board’s lawyer asked to postpone the court hearing while they dealt with the new provincial grant, but their request was denied.

WATCH BELOW: Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff explains why the lawsuit was moving ahead.

2:27 Lawsuit over Osoyoos Secondary closure goes to Supreme Court

The two sides were in court last week,  but now it appears the judge won’t be delivering his decision because the high school isn’t closing anymore.

Trustee Myrna Coates was visibly upset during the board meeting.

“What a waste of money and not even get an answer,” she said. “I think the people in Osoyoos should be up in arms that their town did this to them.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "What a waste of money and not even get an answer," she said. "I think the people in Osoyoos should be up in arms that their town did this to them."

Mayor Sue McKortoff defended council’s decision.

“In retrospect, if we’d known what we’d know now, we may not have gone to court, but how were we supposed to know?”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "In retrospect, if we'd known what we'd know now, we may not have gone to court, but how were we supposed to know?"

“We didn’t know there’d be a rural funding initiative. We had no idea and we were dealing with things as we saw necessary. We felt strongly that this was the right thing to do,” she said.

McKortoff said their lawyer hasn’t billed them yet but the money was budgeted.

The board estimated it will be paying upwards of $100,000 in legal fees, adding that money would have gone to educational purposes.

“Two days in a Supreme Court cost a considerable amount of money and those are education dollars from the school district that had to go fight a legal battle,” said Tarr.

McKortoff agreed it is unlikely the judge’s ruling will be revealed, but it could change after Monday’s council meeting.