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(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)
February 29, 2016 - 5:02 PM
NORTH OKANAGAN - Community members can have their say on potential school closures at two upcoming meetings.
The first is for Silver Creek Elementary and will be April 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the school. The second will be for Armstrong Elementary School April 11 at Pleasant Valley Secondary School starting at 6:30 p.m.
The Board of Education voted Feb. 9 to initiate a 60-day consultation process to close both schools for September 2016.
The school district has also released information packages for the school closures to answer questions about the impact on class sizes, renovations and cost savings.
Provincial legislation allows for a maximum of 22 students in Kindergarten, 24 in grades one to three, and typically 30 students for grades four to 12.
Projected classroom breakouts for Highland Park Elementary in the 2016 to 2017 school year would be 21 to 22 students in Kindergarten, 21 to 23 in grades one to three, and 28 in grades four to Six. Len Wood would have 20 to 21 students in its Kindergarten classes, 20 to 24 in Grades One to Three classes, and 22 to 28 in grades four to six. Pleasant Valley Secondary would have a projected 92 grade 8 students, 83 grade 9s, 110 grade 10s, 121 grade 11s and 137 grade 12s for the next school year.
Closing Silver Creek Elementary and amalgamating students at Salmon Arm West would potentially see classroom sizes of 18 to 19 for Kindergarten, 20 to 24 for grades one to three and 24 for grades four and five in 2016-2017.
Further projections for 2017 to 2018, as well as other information, can be found here.
Closing Silver Creek is expected to shave roughly $213,000 from the operating budget and closing Armstrong Elementary would save around $509,000.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infonews.ca or call 250-309-5230. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2016