Faces Declining Enrollment

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Facing declining enrolment, School District 23 has taken the unprecedented step of trying to lure private school students into the public system. Advertisements promoting the public system ran earlier this month in a local newspaper.
One ad was headlined, “Want to return to public education?”while the second said “Why choose public education?”

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School board chairwoman Moyra Baxter said the first ad was to alert the parents of private schools that they needed to register by March 14 in the public system if their kids were to get the programs they wanted. “The main reason they were placed is that if parents are thinking of coming to our system (from a private school) ’please register now so that we can make sure we have a space for you,‘”

Both ads, however, are promotional. They tout the district‘s “top provincial results,” Click on Low Rates quality of instruction, French immersion, free career training opportunities and also tell private school parents how to make the switch.

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Baxter said it‘s the first time the district has done such selling. We talk a lot about the fact that we have a lot of very unique programs in this district,” she said. “A lot of our programs are not available in the private system. “We see advertisements all the time from the private system

” She said a school board public relations committee was struck several years ago that came to the conclusion that “we were not promoting public education and talking about the positive things that are happening.” *

Baxter said enrolment is declining everywhere, including private schools. “We‘ve lost a couple of hundred students, but there are districts that have lost thousands,” she said. Just which school districts have lost thousands of students? She defended the cost of the ads by saying the more students that are in the district, the more programs that can be offered because every student brings with them provincial funding.
* Mike Guzzi, speaking for Vedanta Academy, said private school enrolment is doing well. “Private schools in general have not been declining,” he said. “Our only problem is size constraints. We don‘t have any room. We‘re full.” Vedanta has 160 students in Grades 2-12. Tuition averages about $3,000 a year. About eight per cent of the students in the Central Okanagan attend private schools.
* Baxter said the issue of placing the ads never came to a board vote and was undertaken by staff.
* The ads tout SD23 top provincial results Click on Low Rates
The ads are an effort to ensure that there is space for students who may make the switch...yah! right !
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Let's see..Kelowna is one of the fastest growing areas in the province..so enrollment in SD23 schools should be up by hundreds & hundreds. Baxter maintains that SD23 's enrollment is only down a couple hundred.
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Really, SD23 enrollment is probably down by far more than a couple hundred. New private schools have been constructed & additions have been made to others to accommodate increased enrollment, while Baxter claims enrollment at private schools has declined.
* Mike Guzzi contradicts Baxter on enrollment saying that private school enrollment has not been declining!
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The closing of many schools & herding too many students into mega schools has turned Parents off to SD23. Click on Bad Decisions
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Parents conclude that:
SD23 may not be a fit place for their children.
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Baxter & SD23's Board of Trustees appear out of touch & a group of hypocrites. Click on Hypocrites
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The community lost trust & faith in SD23 several years ago under Superintendent Rubadeau Click on Rubadeau's Legacy & Baxter has yet to acknowledge it in order to repair the damage.
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Certainly Baxter's reasons for placing the ads confirms why parents lost trust & faith in School District 23.
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Public schools take a non-religious view, so many Christians send their children to private Christian Schools.
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The external review lavishing praise on SD23 for the quality of its programs was most likely not carried out by an independent group outside the education system & therefore suspicious. Click on Low Rates Ex- superintendent Rubadeau is going around doing reviews of other districts. Click on Rubadeau's Legacy

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Baxter is living in a bubble if she thinks that families move away just because of the cost of living. SD23's recent past disrespect of parents while closing schools & herding students into overcrowded mega schools & web sites depicting SD23's mistreatment of Custodian Fisher have more to do with reduced SD23 enrollment than Baxter will admit. Click on Dismissal SD23 reduced 12 high schools to just five, created six middle schools and whittled the elementary system to 29 neighbourhood schools.

Click on Bad Decisions Click on List of Private Schools
The company that SD23 set up to recruit overseas students has lost $150,000 to date & more loses are to come. Click on Big Loss

Baxter is trying to sell the community a phony bill of goods.

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