Money was so tight it was continually mentioned by parents and the Vancouver School Board in 2013.
Alongside the balanced budget the province requires, the VSB passed a restoration budget last spring that contends the district would need an additional $41 million to reinstate the same level of service that it offered students a decade ago.
In an effort to balance its budget, the VSB cut four teaching positions, in addition to the 38 full-time equivalent positions expected to be eliminated due to a declining school population. It cut two youth and family and two facilities maintenance staff positions.
In another effort to save money, five school closure days will precede spring break. The board redirected $20,000 from its supplies budget to grants for programs that support vulnerable children on closure days.
In its most controversial decisions, the VSB added $100,000 to its budget to hire a community engagement coordinator. That person’s job is to market the public school system to increase enrolment in an expensive city that’s seen an overall decline in its population of school-aged children. The $100,000 includes money for supplies.
The board also chose to fund its money-losing Continuing Education program, which is more than a century old, for another year.
In a school building preserving and income-generating scheme, VSB signed a 20-year lease for Green Thumb Theatre to use the city’s oldest schoolhouse at Carleton elementary.
A new kindergarten registration system started Nov. 1 that’s meant to streamline registration and provide the district with more information about parents’ choices. The VSB wants to know whether parents whose children don’t get into special programs such as French immersion enrol their children in private schools.
A subcommittee of the VSB surveyed schools for the first time on the amount of money they raise. Its report revealed schools and parents raised $3.45 million last year, with the greatest proportion of that money going to field trips, playgrounds and technology.
Concern about equitable access to technology and its use in instruction is growing, as expressed by the district’s first student trustee who attends board meetings but can’t vote or move motions.
Digital citizenship is a worry with the rampant use of social media. John Oliver secondary is working on a student-led digital code of conduct, and VSB trustee Mike Lombardi said social media literacy should be taught in schools in a systemic way.
Strathcona parents continue to wait for an announcement about a seismic upgrade of the 122-year-old school their children attend. Five schools are in the design phase to make them safer in an earthquake. These include Nelson, General Gordon, L’École Bilingue and Queen Mary elementary schools and Kitsilano secondary.
Premier Christy Clark announced money for seismic upgrades of 16 Vancouver schools in April. The VSB wants 24 additional schools at high risk of significant structural damage in an earthquake upgraded in its five-year capital plan and another 15 lower risk schools to be upgraded after that.
New J.W. Sexsmith and Sir James Douglas elementary schools opened in 2013 along with a new University Hill secondary. Norma Rose Point elementary is under construction.
Education Minister Peter Fassbender suggested last month the VSB might have to consider closing under-used schools to afford imminent increases to hydro rates.
Negotiations to see whether the government can achieve a 10-year collective agreement with teachers continue.
crossi@vancourier.com
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