The Vancouver School Board is hiring an external contractor to comb through its finances and find where further cuts could be made or potential revenue generated.
During the last budget, $8.41 million was slashed from the districts spending. A $14 million shortfall is anticipated for the 2012/2012 budget, although that preliminary figure could drop before the vote is held in the spring. A budget update is expected in January.
Were looking for an external contractor to do a review of our finances and help us identify areas of potential savings in the case that our funding doesnt improve, Vision Vancouver trustee Patti Bacchus told the Courier Tuesday morning. Bacchus was re-elected chairperson Monday night during the new boards inaugural meeting. This [contractor hire] is new. We havent done this in the past. This was something we decided about a month ago given that weve gone over this budget year over year, picking at the bones. Were interested in seeing if theres a different way we can look at thisgetting a fresh external set of eyes.
Former education minister Margaret MacDiarmid ordered a report on the VSBs finances in 2010 after the board complained about its money problems. The report cost the provincial government $165,000. Ten staff were assigned fulltime to conduct the review.
Bacchus said the VSB plans on spending up to $100,000 on its resource allocation review. She said trustees debated whether it was worth it.
Its important we have the best possible professional advice to make our decisions, she said. If they can find savings, particularly that we can carry from year to year that we may have missed, that could be valuable. On the flip side, if they can identify revenue opportunities, they might well save us money.
Bacchus said the board is only looking for proposals at this point.
This will mark Bacchuss fourth term as board chair. The NPAs Ken Denike, whos been chair in past years, was also nominated to be the chairperson Monday night, but lost in a 6-3 vote.
Five Vision candidatesBacchus, Mike Lombardi, Ken Clement, Cherie Payne, and Rob Wynen, three NPA candidatesDenike, Sophia Woo and Fraser Ballantyne, along with COPEs Allan Wong, won school board seats in the Nov. 19 civic vote.
I feel very honoured to do the job. Its important work and I think weve made some real progress in terms of adopting a strategic plan. We seem to be through the bulk of the senior management retirements and have a team in place thats really ready to work with us on that plan, Bacchus said. Its such an exciting time in education with all of the changes, but of course also a challenging time.
The inaugural meeting, which included a reception, cost the district about $2,900the bulk for catering, but also for the First Nations blessing, photographs and flowers.
The new board decides on committee appointments next week, but few other decisions will be made before the New Year when trustees must start to tackle the next budget.
Twitter: @Naoibh
