Straight Talk

Vancouver school board votes against budget but still has two months to balance the books

by Charlie Smith on April 29th, 2016 at 7:25 AM
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      A majority of Vancouver school trustees have voted against proposals that would have balanced the 2016-17 budget by addressing a $24-million shortfall.

      Last night at Gladstone secondary school, four Vision Vancouver board members—Joy Alexander, Patti Bacchus, Mike Lombardi, and Allan Wong—and the sole Green trustee, Janet Fraser, put their hands in the air to signify their opposition.

      Many in the audience erupted in applause.

      The four NPA trustees voted in favour of the recommendations, which would have cut the band and strings program and more than 200 jobs.

      There was a unanimous vote to retain an antihomophobia and diversity mentor, which was also on the chopping block.

      By law, the board must present a balanced budget to the provincial government by June 30.

      Prior to the vote, Fraser wrote a commentary saying she had to weigh the desire to take a moral stand against provincial underfunding with the realization that a provincial trustee might come in and close schools and sell land.

      "Our board has taken a strong position on not selling entire school sites to save them for future Vancouver students in our growing city," Fraser noted in the article. "It is unlikely an official trustee would have the same strong commitment to social justice and equity of access to education—especially for our most vulnerable students—as our current elected board."

      Earlier in the day, the four Vision trustees issued a statement declaring that they intended to vote against the budget. Following the vote, chair Mike Lombardi issued an olive branch to Education Minister Mike Lombardi.

      Last night, Bernier issued a statement saying he's "disappointed" by the board's failure to balance its budget, noting that it's 20.5 percent higher than in 2001 in a district with 6,000 fewer students.

      “Right now there is $37 million a year in Vancouver that should be going to essential classroom services that past boards have instead chosen to invest in heating and maintaining empty spaces in classrooms," Bernier said, referring to Vancouver schools not operating at 95 percent capacity. "Today’s failure continues this sad trend in Vancouver."

      Education Minister Mike Bernier criticized the board for spending money heating empty classrooms.

      The Vancouver school board has issued a statement saying that schools will continue regular operations.

      "VSB recognizes this is a time of uncertainty for parents, students and staff," the board stated. "The district is committed to maintaining operations with no interruptions to school services or cuts to programs or positions in the current school year.  Trustees and senior staff are committed to maintaining as much stability as possible in our school district."

      Over Twitter, the initial reaction to the board's vote was largely positive.

      Province fired school board before

      When a former Coalition of Progressive Electors-controlled board refused to balance the budget and brought in a $14-million shortfall in 1985, the Socred government fired the trustees.

      In their place, then education minister Jack Heinrich appointed an administrator, Allan Stables, who subsequently held public meetings in Vancouver. In the next Vancouver school-board election, all COPE candidates were elected.

      Former Vancouver COPE trustee and UBC professor emeritus Charles Ungerleider wrote a paper in 1987 about the relationship between the province and school boards. In it, he noted that it would be a "serious mistake to see the situation in isolation from the historical context defining the relations between the levels of government responsible for education".

      "When the Minister of Education dismissed the Vancouver Trustees and appointed an official trustee to administer the district, he was behaving in a manner inconsistent with the spirit of those responsible for designing Canada's provincial system of education and the laws they established for maintaining centralized control over local educational authorities," wrote Ungerleider, who later served as deputy minister of education in an NDP government. 

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