The message to the Vancouver School Board Monday evening was loud and clear: reject the proposed budget for the 2016/17 school year.
At least one school board trustee vows to do just that, while another, who possibly holds the deciding vote, suggests she will likely approve it.
Hundreds, including dozens of parents dressed in red to protest proposed budget cuts, and nearly 40 speakers representing parents, students, teachers, support workers and the city’s LGBTQ+ community, attended the meeting at Sir Charles Tupper secondary school. They urged trustees to vote against adopting the budget, even if it costs them their jobs.
Monday’s meeting was the public’s last chance to weigh in before the board makes its final decision on Thursday, April 28. The proposal includes numerous cuts to educational services in order to address an estimated $24-million shortfall. The provincial government requires the district to submit a balanced budget and, should it fail to do so, it can fire the board and appoint someone else to get the job done.
Earlier this month, VSB chairperson Mike Lombardi, a Vision Vancouver trustee, was quoted in the media saying he would not be supporting the budget and that he is ready to be fired over it, a position he reaffirmed to the Courier. He said the public’s input has reinforced his initial inclinations.
“Everything I’ve heard from parents and students and stakeholders and citizens is this budget is unacceptable. Enough is enough,” Lombardi said. “[They’ve said] Vancouver’s made enough cuts over the years, this is going to jeopardize our world-class system, [so] stand up and don’t vote for it.”
NPA trustee Christopher Richardson said whether or not to adopt the budget is something his caucus is still looking at, and that he and the rest of the board have a lot to consider before making up their minds.
“Our dilemma is do we stand up and say that we won’t take anymore [cuts], and we know the consequences of that [is] the appointment of someone who will implement the budget pretty much as it is [and] won’t bring any more money to the table,” Richardson said. “Do we wish to remain the governance of the school district, or are we so upset that we are willing to kind of abdicate our responsibilities to another party if the provincial government was to go that way? That’s not a simple decision.”
Richardson said trustees need to consider other factors such as long-range facilities planning when making their decision about the proposed budget in order to ensure it makes sense in the long run and addresses what he called a “systemic budgetary shortfall situation.”
“We’re in the midst of a 3D chess game,” Richardson said. “The reality is we spend three-quarters of the year being concerned about the shortfall and so what we really need to do is… to be aware of the fact that it hasn’t been the best for the system to be constantly in a shortfall position.”
With an even number of Vision Vancouver and Non-Partisan Association trustees on the board, Green Party trustee Janet Fraser could cast the deciding vote. She said the cumulative effect of the cuts will be felt by every student in the district, but that despite a lot of heart-felt pleas to reject the proposed budget, the consequences of not passing it outweigh the negative impact the proposed cuts will certainly have.
“If we don’t submit a balanced budget and we’re dismissed, then there’s no local elected control of our school district,” Fraser said. “We were elected to take care of our students and that is the duty we should be fulfilling, no matter how hard it is.”
Fraser said a provincially appointed trustee would likely look to the special advisor’s report commissioned by the province a year ago that recommends selling land for one-time profits of $250-750 million despite VSB policies to the contrary.
“If you give up any public land, it’s gone. You can never get it back, you can’t afford to acquire more land, and if we have an appointed trustee for up to three years until the next election, that’s a lot of land that could be sold in that time,” Fraser said, adding she worries the province will use the funds raised to pay for seismic upgrades in the district rather than taking the funds from provincial coffers, thus negating the short-term benefits.
“We’re doing a five-year educational plan, we’re doing a long-range facilities plan that will go out to 2030, [and] if an appointed trustee is in charge of developing and implementing those plans, I don’t think that’s in the best interests of our students. Normally, we pass a balanced budget by the end of April and we start off our staffing changes for September on May 1. If we don’t pass a balanced budget and a budget gets imposed at the end of June, I think that will have a significant impact on our staffing and we will not be ready for students on September.”
The board votes on the proposed budget Thursday, April 28, 7 p.m. in the large gym at Gladstone secondary school (4105 Gladstone St.).
@jameswesmith
