Schools
School District 53 Okanagan Similkameen consists of ten schools, five of which are elementary, three are high or secondary schools, while two are alternative schools, within a total of six communities in British Columbia, Canada, in fragments of the southern Okanagan and lower Similkameen regions.
The schools of the latter region include Cawston Primary School—held in the town of Cawston—whose principal is Linda Thiel, who also served as a principal for the Hedley Elementary School—held in the Hedley town—before its closure in January 2008, after the Okanagan Similkammeen district voted four to two to close the school.
Both schools held students from grades from Kindergarten to Grade 4. The village of Keremeos is home to Similkameen Elementary Secondary School, which holds students from Grades 8 to 12, with the principal being Marcus Toneatto. In addition to the schools of the lower Similkameen, the southern Okanagan holds seven of the ten schools part of the district, as well as its main "maintenance department" office, which is held in the town of Oliver. All schools in the district which are part of the Okanagan region maintain the same format: elementary schools have children from Kindergarten to Grade 8, while secondary schools consist of pupils from Grade 8 to 12. This includes Okanagan Falls Elementary School, which is held in the Okanagan Falls town, with Lisa McCall serving as the school's principal.
The Osoyoos town is home to Osoyoos Elementary School—whose principal is B. Macfarlane—and Osoyoos Secondary School, which is principled by G. Heinrichs. Since 2001, British Columbia has invested over 4.8 Canadian million dollars on replacing Osoyoos Elementary School, as well as Okanagan Falls Elementary School.
It offers the Okanagan Similkameen Learning Centre, which consists of students from Grades 8 to 12; the principal of the learning centre is B. Hansen. Its neighboring town, Oliver, is home to, as of September 2011, Oliver Elementary School and Tuc-el-Nuit Elementary School—the former's principal is Mike Safek, while the latter's is D. Foster.
The community also had a secondary school, named Southern Okanagan Secondary School, until it was burnt by a fire in September 2011, during the school's multi-million dollar renovation project. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police's (RCMP) investigation found no conclusion. The Government of British Columbia are contributing to the school's rebuilding; its construction began in spring 2012, being slated for completion in 2013.
Read more about this topic: Okanagan Similkameen Learning Centre
Famous quotes containing the word schools:
“In America the taint of sectarianism lies broad upon the land. Not content with acknowledging the supremacy as the Diety, and with erecting temples in his honor, where all can bow down with reverence, the pride and vanity of human reason enter into and pollute our worship, and the houses that should be of God and for God, alone, where he is to be honored with submissive faith, are too often merely schools of metaphysical and useless distinctions. The nation is sectarian, rather than Christian.”
—James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851)
“If Jesus, or his likeness, should now visit the earth, what church of the many which now go by his name would he enter? Or, if tempted by curiosity, he should incline to look into all, which do you think would not shut the door in his face?... It seems to me ... that as one who loved peace, taught industry, equality, union, and love, one towards another, Jesus were he alive at this day, would recommend you to come out of your churches of faith, and to gather into schools of knowledge.”
—Frances Wright (1795–1852)
“Universal suffrage should rest upon universal education. To this end, liberal and permanent provision should be made for the support of free schools by the State governments, and, if need be, supplemented by legitimate aid from national authority.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)