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 Shannon Miller. Cawston School is a Kindergarten to Grade 4 school that is well known for its Weekend Western Day Assembly, held on Victoria Day Weekend and featuring hobby horse barrel racing. The village of
Keremeos is home to
Similkameen Elementary Secondary School (S.E.S.S.), which holds students from Grades 5 to 12, with the principal being Naren Searcy.
Hedley did have a Kindergarten to Grade 4 school of its own until January 2008, when the Okanagan Similkameen district voted four to two to close the school. In addition to the schools of the lower Similkameen, the southern Okanagan holds seven of the ten schools part of the district, 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 Dave Foster —and
Osoyoos Secondary School, which is principled by Glen 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. 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 Dave Foster. The community also had a secondary school, named
Southern Okanagan Secondary School, The
Royal Canadian Mounted Police's (RCMP) investigation found no conclusion. In addition to the conventional school programs, School District 53 offers three adult learning outlets, an outreach school, three early learning centres, as well as one elementary hockey academy. It also works with a number of
Aboriginal people, having signed an enhancement agreement to improve academic achievement of them. 2,665 students attend schools in this district, whose superintendent is Beverley Young. == Demographics ==