Budget cutbacks are being faced by school districts across the province but the VSB, one of the largest in British Columbia, is the first to release details.Getty Images/iStockphoto
School annex closings, teacher and staff layoffs and deep program cuts have been proposed at the Vancouver School Board as officials try to come to grips with a massive budget gap.
"We've got a $27.2-million shortfall, the largest ever faced by the Vancouver School Board," Mike Lombardi, VSB chair, said Thursday shortly before senior staff posted a preliminary budget and spending-reduction proposals.
Mr. Lombardi said the district has been dealing with financing shortages for nearly a decade and now has few options.
"I've been on the board for eight years, and I've had to make more than $80-million worth of cuts already. So we've now got a situation where there's not much further to go and I can assure you our superintendent's recommendations are going to hit hard at the classroom level," he said. "This is a crisis situation. … There will be devastating cuts on direct programs and services for kids."
Budget cutbacks are being faced by school districts across the province but the VSB, one of the largest in British Columbia, is the first to release details.
"This is unacceptable for the kids of Vancouver and quite frankly for the kids of the province, because we're not the only school board in this situation," he said. "You cannot fathom a cut of this nature … without going deeply into kids and services – and that's why I'm angry and frustrated today."
The VSB's preliminary budget proposal calls for the closing of school annexes and the layoffs of 33 secondary school teachers, six vice-principals and 22 office-support staff.
Among other things, reductions in athletic programs and arts programs are proposed, and special-education staffing would be eliminated in some schools.
The base operating budget at the VSB for 2016-17 is projected to include about $477-million in revenue and about $504-million in expenditures. The board gets 93 per cent of its funding from the province.
Education Minister Mike Bernier was travelling and couldn't be reached for an interview, but in an e-mail he criticized the VSB for routinely releasing interim budgets that project large deficits.
He said an audit of the VSB books last year concluded the practice "is significantly misleading."
Mr. Bernier said that since 2009, the VSB has predicted deficits, "yet in the same time period has ended up growing its surplus by almost $17-million."
He also said Vancouver schools, which are at about 84-per-cent capacity, are underused.
"In the face of record funding from the province, VSB's failure to deal with under-capacity schools over the years means taxpayers are paying an extra $37-million a year funding empty seats instead of education," he stated.
Enrolment has been dropping slowly in Vancouver schools. There are now about 52,000 students, down from 58,000 in 2001.
The VSB has been looking at closing about 12 schools, but the proposal is still under discussion.
Rob Fleming, NDP education critic, said that while government funding has increased over the years, it has not kept pace with inflation, and at the same time the government has been downloading additional costs to school boards for such things as BC Hydro and teacher pension-plan increases.
He said the government has starved the school system of adequate funding for too long.
"I think we are at the breaking point," Mr. Fleming said. "B.C. is now $1,000-per-pupil behind the Canadian average in terms of funding."
Andrew Weaver, Leader of the B.C. Green Party, was critical of Premier Christy Clark, who earlier this week said the best way to help finance schools is by helping the provincial economy grow.
"Fundamentally the B.C. Liberals have it backwards. A quality education is not the luxury of a strong economy. A quality public-education system is what builds a strong economy," said Dr. Weaver, who was a university professor and leading climate change scientist before entering politics.
"The Premier has all these hypothetical conditions about a growing economy that she thinks must be met before her government will adequately fund public schools," he said. "This is short-sighted and puts our province's economic future in jeopardy."