With replacement years away, trustees mull upgrading RMS

Aging middle school in Rutland can’t be left way it is, says head of school board

While a new Rutland Middle School may be years away, district staff are looking into ways of upgrading the aging school.

Rutland Middle School has been at the top of the Central Okanagan school board’s priority list of rebuilds for many years.

However, decisions on which districts get funding for which projects are up to the Ministry of Education.

“We know that they have put their priorities on rebuilds and replacements on schools in the Lower Mainland which need to be seismically upgraded,” board chairperson Moyra Baxter said Wednesday afternoon.

The main issues with Rutland Middle are that there is only one girls’ washroom and one boys’ washroom for the whole school, and that the school is highly inaccessible for people with mobility issues.

“Not only is there not an elevator, but the stairs are old and bendy,” said Baxter. “We’ve got to do something with that building to make it not have so many challenges.”

Baxter has taken Rob Fleming, the minister of education, on a tour of Rutland Middle, showing him why a rebuild is necessary.

However, the government has yet to invest money into building a new Rutland Middle School.

Until now, the board has been focused on replacing Rutland Middle, and while that remains a top priority other short-term solutions may be on the horizon.

“If it’s going to be another 10 or 15 years before we get a new school, we can’t just leave it the way it is,” said Baxter.

At the next planning and facilities meeting on Nov. 21, staff will bring forward options for the board to consider regarding upgrading Rutland Middle School, she said.

However, with the many upgrades that are needed, it may be cheaper to build a new school, she noted.

“The biggest problem is we do not have a site to build a new school. We do not have any land, and we’ve searched the whole of Rutland, and it’s all in the (Agricultural Land Reserve).”

If the board decides to proceed with pursuing upgrades for Rutland Middle, it would have to submit a request for funding to the ministry through its upcoming budget. It would then be up to the ministry to approve it or not.

As is evident with the government’s lack of action so far on replacing Rutland Middle, the ministry does not always go along with what the board has identified as a top priority, said Baxter.

“When they announced they were going to fund Mar Jok, the new elementary school on the Westside, and the expansion of Okanagan Mission Secondary, they weren’t even the top of our list,” she said. “If they see there’s an area that needs something and they feel that’s the politically astute thing to do, that’s what they sometimes do.”

Rutland parents have expressed frustration at the lack of a plan for a new middle school.

“The parents of RMS catchment fear that our students will continue to go to a school that continues to have zero funds invested in the building and it has been neglected for many years,” Marie Howell, president of the RMS parents advisory committee, wrote in a letter to several media outlets.

Baxter said she understands the frustration, but emphasizes the board is doing all it can.

“I certainly sympathize, but it’s not that the board is just sitting on our hands and saying ‘who cares?’” said Baxter. “We do our due diligence for all parts of the school board.”

The school board held its inaugural meeting Wednesday night, during which trustees were set to elect a chairperson.