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Les Leyne: School woes trouble for other districts

Another three audits of the defunct Vancouver School Board were released Friday, adding to the pile of unsolicited advice that previous boards appear to have ignored going back years.
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The Vancouver School Board

Les Leyne mugshot genericAnother three audits of the defunct Vancouver School Board were released Friday, adding to the pile of unsolicited advice that previous boards appear to have ignored going back years.

The difference this time around for the perennial problem child of B.C. school districts is that the B.C. Liberals have set up a fast track to getting all the latest urgings adopted. They did it by firing everybody who looked like they might balk at the ideas.

All the findings of waste, inefficiency, overstaffing and mismanagement will land on the desk of a single, hand-picked super trustee with full authority for the next two years to do what she, and/or the government, thinks needs to be done. Education Minister Mike Bernier dismissed the elected board last week and installed veteran school administrator Diane Turner in its place.

There’s no direct impact on other districts, but the message is clear. It’s the equivalent of handing out a long-term detention to the kid with chronic behaviour problems, just to show the rest of the class the consequences of acting up. Bernier used the mysterious wildcat “stress leave” walkout by several senior administrators as another reason to axe the board. Although another report has yet to drop, there are no Halloween horror stories about trustee bullying in special adviser Peter Milburn’s report.

He found a generalized conflict between loud advocacy for more funding and the legal requirement for stewardship of the annual district budget. Milburn, a former deputy finance minister, said there’s a place for both. But he said the perceived level of public support for advocacy is often overstated, since only people adversely affected by decisions tend to go public.

The clash between the two views has resulted in poor decisions. Example: “Failing to pass a balanced budget, and using that very failure as the basis for arguing that more funding is required.”

As well, some trustees have a hands-on approach that burdens administrators and comes with a disrespectful attitude toward staff. It’s unusual and ineffective and interferes with management, he said. “It is also causing an unsustainable amount of stress.”

He recommends several overhauls of governance.

The critique of the fiscal situation is even tougher. Milburn said the board for three years has effectively run down savings accounts to pay for day-to-day expenses. As to why Vancouver has so much more trouble than any other district in balancing its budget, he said the two biggest factors are collective agreements and excess space.

Vancouver has 14 collective agreements. Some staffing levels are based simply on square footage of space. Some have minimum levels, whether staff are needed or not. Some forbid work crossing over between unions. An earlier study found $25 million a year is wasted.

It also has 30 per cent more space-per-student than other districts, a problem that’s existed for years, even with enrolment forecast to be flat for years. Dithering on school closures accelerated the annual crisis this year. Milburn also listed a number of revenue opportunities the board has rejected over the years for various reasons.

The best shot at getting out the fiscal hole is to sell Kingsgate Mall, the tired old East Broadway shopping centre that brings in an annual rent, but could produce a huge one-time boost that could be leveraged.

A much lengthier Ernst & Young audit reaches much the same conclusions. And a supplemental report on the flip-flop about school closures goes deeper into that fiasco.

Viewed from afar, Vancouver’s chronic budget problems obviously hit Vancouver students and parents the hardest.

But it’s a problem for the whole province. The drama over the four months the VSB was in breach of the balanced-budget law prompted the provincial government to make an example of the trustees. Now all the findings of ineptitude and grandstanding at the expense of proper oversight will be used to reassure taxpayers that there’s lots of money in education, it just has to be spent properly.

That is very much in doubt. The cost pressures and the downloading continue every year, and every board struggles. Vancouver trustees’ failures are going to count against everyone.

As one Island trustee said: “This just makes it harder for other boards who are doing their damnedest.”

lleyne@timescolonist.com