Summerland’s mayor and city council want the district to have more clout when it comes to school decisions.
The move comes after one of the district’s elementary schools was slated to close.
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Hundreds of parents and concerned residents fought to keep the school open, with full support from Mayor Peter Waterman and council.
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The B.C. government ended up providing funding to keep Trout Creek Elementary school open, but now Waterman and council have approached the province on a pilot project: a new, local school board.
Currently, Summerland schools are governed under School District 67’s Okanagan Skaha board, which also includes schools in Penticton, Naramata and Kaleden.
In a news release council said its wanting to re-create its own local school board, similar to the model in place in 1996 before the district amalgamated its board with Penticton’s.
“The proposed project would merge administrative services of the municipality with the administrative services of a new, local school board,” stated the release. “Council is excited about the opportunity to discuss the idea with the community, political leaders, teachers and other stakeholders to determine whether moving forward with the project would be a benefit to Summerland and a potential model for other regions of the Province.”
The idea has yet to be discussed with the province’s education minister, Mike Bernier.
The district said extensive community consultation will also be required to see if the proposed project is feasible “such as investigation into any potential impact on the labour force, teachers, school support staff and other factors that would be identified as the idea of the project was developed.”
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