Major changes could be ahead for Vancouver’s schools if the city school board’s appointed official trustee, Dianne Turner, follows the recommendations of a recent audit report.
Special adviser Peter Milburn’s report into the Vancouver School Board recommends significant changes to collective agreements, the sale of non-school properties including the Kingsgate Mall and the sale of portions of 15 existing school lands. The report even calls out the trustees for voting along party lines, something it says goes against the School Act.
Education Minister Mike Bernier fired the elected trustees on Oct. 17 for having failed to pass a balanced budget by June 30. He appointed Turner to take over a board that has seen six senior staff members go on medical leave at the same time amid allegations of bullying and harassment that have been referred to WorkSafeBC, which says it is investigating.
Kingsgate Mall is worth at least $120 million, money that could be used to pay for operating expenses, the report says. The fired trustees rejected a plan in June that involved the possible sale of the mall, saying they did not agree with selling public lands to cover operating expenses. The School Act has rules about how the money can be spent when school lands are sold — usually only on capital expenditures. However, the education ministry has said that won’t apply to a Kingsgate Mall sale because there are no records about how the land was acquired.
Fired former board chairman Mike Lombardi said that in June both the superintendent and secretary-treasurer advised against selling the Kingsgate Mall.
“They told us selling it would result in a loss to the VSB over the long-term,” Lombardi said. “This shortsighted approach is equivalent to taking out a mortgage to buy groceries.”
‘This shortsighted approach is equivalent to taking out a mortgage to buy groceries,’ fired, former Vancouver School Board chairman Mike Lombardi says of an audit report’s recommendation that the board sell the Kingsgate Mall property and use the proceeds to pay for operating expenses.
The report lists 15 school lands it says could be subdivided and redeveloped while keeping the schools open, including Prince of Wales, Eric Hamber and John Oliver secondary schools, Southlands, Carleton and Carr elementary schools and several others. It says the board is already investigating selling its maintenance workshop (5959 Wales St.) and grounds yard (1471 Clark Dr.) and that it could get between $71.9 and $97.8 million for the two properties.
VSB should review the policy against leasing closed schools to private or independent schools, the report says.
VSB should also review all of its 14 collective agreements because they contain restrictive clauses that limit VSB’s ability to save money and that contribute, along with excess space in the district, to the VSB’s high operating costs of $8,537 per pupil, the report says.
About 30 full-time grounds staff are not needed for half of the year and could be contracted out to another public sector agency, saving the district about $870,000 a year, the report says. In all, the report says VSB could save $24.7 million a year if its staffing was at the same levels as other districts.
Lombardi said any changes to collective agreements would have to be agreed on by both sides, or be legislated by the province — he calls this “contract stripping” — something he doesn’t support.
“That is a recipe for potential labour relations disaster,” he said.
The report says that VSB trustees were not independent, which Milburn finds to be in contravention of the School Act. In e-mails examined by Milburn, one trustee e-mailed other trustees to suggest they vote no to the budget, which the report says is evidence of a lack of independence of trustees. Milburn says a part of the trustee oath that says, “(I) will not allow any private interest to influence my conduct in public matters” should be interpreted to include political interests, including election platforms.
Lombardi says that is a total misunderstanding of how civic politics work in a big city like Vancouver, where he says candidates have to belong to a political party with a platform to be elected.
“An elected board is there to serve the community. It is the will of the people, based on your campaign promises and you’re held accountable the next election,” Lombardi said. “An appointed board is there to reflect the values and beliefs of the appointing agency.”
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