New school closure committee proposed
Summerland school board trustee candidate Dave Stathers is expanding upon his pledge to keep Trout Creek Elementary School open.
Last week at an all candidates forum at Centre Stage Theatre, Stathers vowed to fight hard for the school and promised that he would never vote in favour of its closure.
Now, he is proposing the formation of a new stakeholders community school committee.
“This committee would include volunteer members from all groups involved in another possible school closure: parents, students, school district staff, trustees, our MLA, local government, business people, neighbourhood associations, anyone who wants some say in the decision and/or process of closing a Summerland school,” Stathers said in a statement.
He adds that the last public hearing process in 2016 wasn’t handled properly and caused much confusion and controversy. He said this new committee would get more people involved at all stages of the process.
In addition, he hopes to satisfy Trout Creek parents, whose protest efforts saved the school with last-minute government funding from a new Rural Education Enhancement Fund.
Education Minister Rob Fleming has stated that REEF funding will continue, at least temporarily, but adds that it could get absorbed into a new education funding formula be- ing considered by the provincial government.
Stathers has been critical of incumbent trustees Linda VanAlphen and Julie Planiden for voting to close the school, especially since he says "democratically, they were supposed to specifically represent the concerns of Summerland citizens.”
He says this new committee would apply to all four local schools and will only be activated if a school is in jeopardy. Lost in the discussion, he adds, is that all the schools would have been impacted by a Trout Creek School closing.
Giants Head Elementary, already bursting at the seams with students, would have changed to kindergarten to Grade 3, Summerland Middle School would have transformed to an intermediate school with Grades 4-7, and Grade 8 would been added to Summerland Secondary School.
Stathers said the changes would have caused much anxiety in the community; and moving forward, it is his goal to keep one of the top-ranked elementary schools in the province open.
The Fraser Institute ranks Trout Creek as the top academic school in the district.