Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/School District 53 Okanagan Similkameen/archive1


 * The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was not promoted by Ian Rose 08:37, 17 November 2012.

School District 53 Okanagan Similkameen

 * Nominator(s): TBrandley 03:38, 5 November 2012 (UTC)

Following my successful FA nomination of "Nightswimming" (Awake) and failed nomination of Awake (TV series), I present School District 53 Okanagan Similkameen. This school district serves fragments of the southern Okanagan and lower Similkameen regions, with its main office held in Oliver. This article recently underwent a good article review from Hahc21. In regards to this article's comprehensiveness, it covers all the information about the main subjects (its schools and production and history of it) and major aspects possible, and this is the most information there is available. Thank you for considering this nomination. TBrandley 03:38, 5 November 2012 (UTC)

Image check - both images have problematic PD-information: To avoid the hassle with hunting down those infos, it's probably easier to replace the images with other files, when you have access to alternatives ("Own work" or images with a public CC-statement are much easier to verify). GermanJoe (talk) 12:49, 6 November 2012 (UTC)
 * File:Billboyd.jpg lacks clear source and author information. "bill boyd gave me rights to use on websites" is not sufficient as PD-release. See licensing and OTRS for more info. In any case, what encyclopedic value does this landscape image add to a school district article?
 * File:S_Okanagan_Secondary_Schl.jpg - summary "Picture taken of SOSS - If needed I can get my own photograph but this works as well." indicates, the uploader is not the author. Clarification of the original author's CC-release and additional source details are needed.


 * Comment: Is there a map available? Since you're talking about a school district, this would help (even if it's discontinuous) Mattximus (talk) 00:48, 7 November 2012 (UTC)
 * A map of what? Where is it? Is there a source?
 * A map of the school district. You mention several places (towns?), but without some kind of visual representation it's hard for someone who isn't from the area to see the extent of the district, or even where it is on earth. Mattximus (talk) 02:47, 7 November 2012 (UTC)

Source comments by Hahc21
 * It appears that most sources come from the schools page, which is the best we can have at first glance. I recommend to archive them all. Shools may renovate their pages very often.
 * It'll be great if you expand on how the district was founded, a brief resumee of the school's foundation.
 * How? There are no sources on it. TBrandley 01:15, 7 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Oh, then there's nothing to do. — ΛΧΣ  21™  01:19, 7 November 2012 (UTC)

Prose comments by Hahc21 — ΛΧΣ  21™  01:10, 7 November 2012 (UTC)
 * I missed this on the GAN review: The lead and body says the superintendent to be Vern Berg, but the infobox says Beverly Young. The latter is a person or a place?
 * Sorry, I forgot to change that part, "Berverly Young" is the new updated one, now. TBrandley 01:13, 7 November 2012 (UTC)
 * More comments coming

Oppose This short article, consisting of 12 short paragraphs, would have benefited from a peer review before being nominated. The prose falls short of the standard required.

I'm not convinced that "fragments" is the best word to describe the areas of the regions served. I'm not sure what a "maintenance department" is, and this is not helped by the quotation marks, which make be think the author doesn't really know either. The use "while" is awkward - there are about seven of them - and introduces false contrasts as in " while 2,665 students attend schools in it; there are 480 employees". There is padding, " It provides a school bus transportation service, in order for children to get to their school and home, being responsible to the Director of Facilities". What else does a school bus do? And the source for this, which is a job description, says the bus driver is responsible to the Director. It will come as no surprise that there is an emergency policy and this is not needed in the Lead, let alone the fact that it was amended on  April 30, 2008. Similarly, do we really need to know that the smoke free policy was amended on September 26, 2007?

This sentence doesn't flow well Their motto is "Learning Today for Living Tomorrow", and all places within the district are towns or villages. What has the demographics got to do with the motto?

There is confusion over the use of "which" and "that" - as in "All schools in the district which are part of the Okanagan region maintain the same format:"

There is redundancy and lack of clarity here, "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." Is "by a fire" needed, and how extensive was the damage? The source gives a lot more detail - why not include it?

This could be interesting but the reader is left hanging, " It also works with a number of Aboriginal people, having signed a enhancement agreement to improve academic achievement of them." (The grammar is also poor).

It does help to make the prose engaging by starting sentences with large numerals as in: " 2,665 students attend schools in this district" and "1,303 of those 2,665 students within the district attend elementary schools".

There is more padding and redundancy here, "The British Columbia province gives funds to the school district, so that it can maintain their schools correctly."

This is not professional prose, "The amount given is based on the number of kids that are enrolled for the year.".

This is poor, "An emergency—a "sudden", "unexpected" occurrence that requires action for a situation—at schools within the district 53 scope can result in school or bus transportation facilities." Does the reader need a definition of an emergency? And can result in what exactly with regard to the bus service. The rest of the of this paragraph is just padding.

I'm not convinced that the article has been thoroughly researched. There is no history section, the finances are only covered superficially as are the demographics. The sources used are mainly school websites. A visit to a library or two might provide a few facts to use in place of all the padding. Graham Colm (talk) 09:09, 7 November 2012 (UTC)

Oppose and Suggest Withdrawal - Image issues and prose, grammar per Graham Colm (more points could be listed, if necessary). Albeit the lack of background information and further details on the interesting aspects like history and special programs makes it difficult to polish the prose, the article should have more preparation (PR to get input from other interested editors) outside a FA-nomination. Too many awkward phrases, structural flaws and a general lack of "connection" between the article's facts. GermanJoe (talk) 07:49, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

Delegate notes
 * I'll be archiving this shortly as the sort of fundamental improvements recommended by reviewers need to take place outside the FAC process; a PR following such improvement would also be appropriate.
 * One final point, "Aboriginal" in this context shouldn't be capitalised, lest this general term be confused with the specific name for indigenous Australians. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 06:48, 17 November 2012 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.