Vancouver school board staff turned in barely revised homework for the district’s finance committee meeting April 22.
The updated budget, released at the meeting, was barely changed from the preliminary budget, which was released April 8.
Janek Kuchmistrz, third vice president of the Vancouver Elementary School Teachers Association, called the move “absolutely astonishing.”
Instead of being able to comment on revisions, “we’re going to have a dramatic unfolding of new things [on April 30],” he said.
That’s when the school board will make final budget decisions.
The senior management team proposed to the finance committee that “owing to the numerous comments received during the consultation process to date, and given that additional consultation is scheduled for April 28” the trustees should adjust the preliminary budget at the final budget meeting April 30.
Last year, the senior management team expanded the rationale for spending $120,000 on a controversial community engagement coordinator, spared buildings from closure and various positions in the revised budget.
“Some years there’s something definite that comes up that’s either not going to work or a better idea has come up,” said Patti Bacchus, Vision Vancouver chairperson of the VSB, when asked why no specific line item revisions were made. “This year, especially, what I’m hearing is such a diversity of response.”
Advocates for elementary band and strings have spoken loudly against the program’s elimination, and Bacchus proposed a plan April 22 that she’d hatched over the Easter long weekend for dealing with that cut.
Only 30 Vancouverites attended the public consultation on the preliminary budget last spring, whereas hundreds of citizens attended public consultations April 15 to 17.
Marlene Rodgers, the mother of a student in the threatened band and strings program and co-founder of the newly formed citizens’ group Protect Public Education Now, which calls on the provincial government to better fund schools, didn’t attend budget consultations last year.
“It takes a crisis to make you realize you need to speak up,” she said Tuesday as two-dozen elementary school band and strings students performed on the lawn outside the school board office before meeting.
PPEN is non-partisan, Rodgers said, but she supports Vision Vancouver and its trustees dominate school board.
Senior management revealed Tuesday evening the VSB has received an additional $585,000 in holdback funds from the province so the VSB’s projected shortfall is now $11.65 million for 2014-2015.
“I think the reason we got the holdback this time is because of the advocacy that we’ve been seeing out there by parents, students and partner groups,” said Vision Vancouver trustee Mike Lombardi.
Bacchus said she’s seen parents she doesn’t even know in the limelight lobbying for more money for public schools.
Vancouver District Parent Advisory chairperson Monica Moberg noted April 22 that DPAC’s online budget survey had received more than 1,400 responses in less than a week.
Bacchus noted Education Minister Peter Fassbender will speak at the B.C. Student Trustees Association’s annual general meeting this weekend. She hopes he’ll announce additional money for schools.
Note: The board will hear public responses to the budget April 28 at 7 p.m. at the school board office at 1580 West Broadway. Details at vsb.bc.ca.
