Vancouver school board chair Christopher Richardson resigns

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      (Update: Read Christopher Richardson's resignation letter.)

      Vancouver school board chair Christopher Richardson has just resigned as chair, according to a Twitter post by former board chair and current trustee Patti Bacchus.

      There is no indication yet as to the reason for the resignation. A regularly scheduled board meeting got underway tonight at 7 p.m.

      A recent audit commissioned by the provincial government and released June 9 recommended the closure of up to 19 schools in Vancouver as part of a range of actions that could save as much as $750 million.

      The next school year's budget for School District 39 (Vancouver), which must be balanced by provincial law, is due at the end of June.

      The report by Ernst & Young noted that up to $37 million per year in savings could be realized by the school closures, mostly through support staff and overhead costs.

      Comments

      14 Comments

      Starla Anderson

      Jun 15, 2015 at 9:27pm

      This provincial government is shameful! It's not enough to weaken schools but closing schools weakens neighborhoods. I taught in Vancouver and my four kids were educated in Vancouver - my grandchildren who are now in Vancouver schools are not getting the richness of program options that once were in place. The citizens of Vancouver have to make noise - support the parents and their children. Support the teachers and support staff, the administration, the school board! Speak up and speak loud!

      Poisoned by education cuts

      Jun 15, 2015 at 9:30pm

      This is hardly surprising. The pressures of dealing with a district's financial burdens and having the decree from on Provincial high to cut, cut, cut without any regard to the impact is nothing short of ludicrous. It's also short-sighted to the nth degree. BC will rue the day Clark and her party decimated the profession and brought a starving excuse for an education system down. Shame.

      Mr Lots of Questions

      Jun 15, 2015 at 11:56pm

      Why are we letting Patti Bacchus push us into believing Christopher Richardson quit because of financial cuts ? Remember that Patti is Vision Vancouver and that does not always equal truth or integrity. Keep digging Martin.

      Steve Sainas

      Jun 16, 2015 at 12:47am

      Patti and VSB, please refuse to make these cuts and submit a needs budget. Do this in coordination with the BCSTA. At this point, defiance is the only option left to protect our students' public education from these unjust cuts that are designed to further atrophy our public school system into dysfunction in order to justify privatization. Force the provincial government to either fire all the trustees in this province, or back down from their privatization agenda. If they fire all of you, the public will finally be outraged enough to bring this corrupt government down. If the BCSTA does not collectively defy the government, the BC Liberals will continue cut away until there is nothing left to protect. Under Bill 11, you are all now one step away from being replaced at their whim. You really have nothing left to lose. Act in defiance now while you still can. In my opinion, this is the only viable strategy available to stop this corrupt government from completely destroying public education in this province and replacing it with a chartered school system.

      Martin Dunphy

      Jun 16, 2015 at 1:00am

      Mr. Lots:

      This was a late-breaking story with few details available Monday night. The information supplied by Patti Bacchus is contained in her three-sentence tweet copied in the article body. The copy after that came from me.

      LMAO!

      Jun 16, 2015 at 2:08am

      Will it be health, "health," or falling on his sword because the audit showed all is not well at the VSB? One look at their annual expenditures shows an absurd number of administrators taking home six-figure salaries in a school district with declining enrolment. The amazing thing is that even as the number of students has declined the number of people administering the system has increased. Unfortunately school boards operate in that magical realm of bureaucracy that the bulk of the drones ignore and they spend accordingly knowing they can blame government or the BCTF and half the drones will believe them. The decisions about where money is spent are made by bureaucrats: not elected officials.

      Obyone

      Jun 16, 2015 at 7:16am

      If the right wingers are good at one thing, it is knowing when the system is broke and when to jump ship.

      Barry William Teske

      Jun 16, 2015 at 7:42am

      Here we go again.
      Another set of 'BC Leaders' given us the sucker punch.
      Affluence looking for any means possible to dumb everyone else down to the 'they will cooperate if they are living in poverty' levels.

      Riot in the streets...

      Jun 16, 2015 at 12:20pm

      Isn't that what Vancouverites do best?

      James Blatchford

      Jun 16, 2015 at 1:01pm

      I don't think the man cared to be the Fassbender's undertaker.