PLOT SUMMARY
This is a story about a provincial government and a school board. Like many tales, it’s mostly about money. The board says the government doesn’t give it enough to teach the children well. The government says it gives the board more money every year and board members don’t do a good job of spending it. The action takes place in the present, but is influenced by characters and decisions that go back many years.
PROTAGONISTS
Patti Bacchus: chair, Vancouver School Board Ms. Bacchus ran as a Vision candidate in the 2008 civic election, campaigning on a platform of protecting public education against government budget cuts. Before running as a school-board trustee, she served on parent advisory committees and was active in education-related campaigns, including one that pushed for seismic upgrades for aging city schools.
Ms. Bacchus, 48, was born and raised in Vancouver, where she lives with her husband Lee Bacchus. She has a grown stepdaughter and two school-age children.
Margaret MacDiarmid: Education Minister, MLA Vancouver-Fairview. Ms. MacDiarmid ran for office as a Liberal in 2009 and was appointed to the education portfolio in June of last year. Before becoming an MLA, she was a family physician for more than 20 years and was involved with the Canadian Medical Association and the BC Medical Association, of which she was president in 2006-2007.
Ms. MacDiarmid, 52, was elected to represent Vancouver-Fairview in 2009. Originally from Saskatchewan, she moved to Rossland, B.C., with her husband Robert in 1989 and later moved to Vancouver.
THE PLOT, THICKENED
There are 60 school districts in British Columbia, ranging from the biggest – Surrey, which has more than 65,000 students – to Central Coast, which comprises seven schools and serves fewer than 300 students.
Vancouver School District is close to Surrey in size, with about 56,000 students in kindergarten to Grade 12, and has a budget of nearly half-a-billion dollars a year.
Like other districts in the province, Vancouver gets nearly all (about 93 per cent, according to VSB figures) of its money from provincial grants. And, like other districts, Vancouver spends the lion’s share of its budget (about 90 per cent, again according to VSB figures) on employee salaries and benefits. And, again like every other district, Vancouver is required to file a balanced budget by the end of June for the next school year and is not allowed to run a deficit.
So what twist makes Vancouver different – and how did its board end up on a collision course with the province?
For one thing, its budget woes were relatively severe. In March, the Vancouver School Board announced an $18.12-million budget shortfall – about 3.5 per cent of its annual budget – citing more than $8-million worth of costs that had been passed on to the board but not covered by the province.
Those costs, for things such as salary increases negotiated by the province, carbon offsets and medical service plan increases, are causing headaches for school trustees around the province. Teachers’ unions and education advocacy groups maintain the government has “downloaded” some $120-million worth of unfunded costs to local school boards this year alone.
The province says it has increased overall funding for education and cites its commitment to learning through initiatives such as full-day kindergarten, which is being phased in by September, 2011. Last week, the government announced plans to spend $144-million to provide 665 new classrooms for that program, on top of a previously announced commitment of $280-million.
Then there is the political backdrop. In many districts throughout the province, school trustees are not necessarily affiliated with a political party. The current Vancouver board consists of nine members from three different parties. None has a majority. The biggest contingent is the four-member Vision team, made up of Ms. Bacchus and three other left-leaning Vision trustees.
