Special adviser Cheryl Wenezenki-Yolland seriously questions the Vancouver School Board’s management ability, its focus on advocacy work and its relationship with district management in a damning report released June 4.

Wenezenki-Yolland, the comptroller general with the Ministry of Finance, was appointed by the Ministry of Education to look into the board’s financial performance after the VSB complained about having to cut millions from its budget for the 2010/11 school year.

The report, released at noon on Friday, sparked duelling press conferences by Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid at her constituency office on West Broadway and board chair Patti Bacchus, a Vision Vancouver trustee, at the VSB office.

The education ministry concluded from the report that the district’s poor financial position could have been avoided had the board managed its resources properly.

MacDiarimid said the report confirms that the board is in a strong cash position, but trustees failed to heed management advice, which created significant budget pressures of $8 million.

The ministry also said the report reveals that up to $11 million in additional revenue and cost savings can be achieved through such avenues as shared services, that the VSB could save $5.7 million by closing and consolidating schools and that its political advocacy has been at the expense of stewardship of the district. The special adviser also questions the appropriateness of using district resources to fund the advocacy work and that there were consistent concerns about the ethical and organizational culture at the VSB, as well as a perceived lack of trust between the board and district management, according to the ministry.

“I’m gravely concerned about the findings,” MacDiarmid told reporters. “I appointed the special adviser because we had grave concerns about how the Vancouver School Board was functioning and the comptroller general has come out with a number of recommendations that are concerning. She finds that the board has had sound management advice from their management team, but they haven’t taken it. She believes that there is adequate funding present in the district, but they have made some poor decisions along the way. And, she’s made a number of recommendations about strengthening governance about the fact that [on] this board most of them believe that their job is advocacy and in the comptroller general’s view, they have a fiduciary—they have a responsibility—to manage the budget.”

Bacchus called the report “a disappointment” and stressed Wenezenki-Yolland is not an independent voice but is an employee of the provincial government.

Bacchus rejected most of the report’s findings and argued it contains errors, which had been pointed out to Ministry of Finance staff. Bacchus also bristled at what she called “innuendo” in the report that questioned the integrity of elected officials.

“We had had some optimisms that when this report was complete it would provide us with some desperately needed help to address our deep funding shortfall that, as you know, comes on the heels of over $50 million of spending cuts in the district this decade due to underfunding,” she said. “Vancouver is not different from other districts in this province, You’re probably all aware of the kinds of spending reductions districts throughout B.C. have had to make, particularly this year, and also in previous years—very similar on a per capita basis to Vancouver.”

Bacchus said the minister’s view of stewardship is different from hers and that the ministry wants the VSB to focus on business not students. “We are not a widget factory, we are about students,” she said.

Bacchus added that one of her campaign promises during the election was to become a “tireless advocate” for public schools and said the ministry was bullying a school district struggling to make ends meet.

“I didn’t run for office so I could carry out the province’s dirty work,” she said.

The VSB faces cutting an estimated $17 million from the 2010/11 budget, which must be passed by month’s end.

The Minister of Education and the Vancouver School Board are expected to meet early Tuesday morning.

noconnor@vancourier.com