The Vancouver School Board is being forced to endure a controversial government oversight process this week – and the results could have implications for school funding across B.C.
The board is in dire straits due to an $18-million budget shortfall and is considering a number of unpalatable options to balance its books, including cutting almost 200 jobs and extending non-instructional days.
Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid called the suggestions "unacceptable," and a special advisor was appointed last week to step in and crunch the board's numbers.
"We believe they need to look harder … For other kinds of changes and other kinds of savings," MacDiarmid said.
But the VSB isn't the only board facing tough choices. A number of other districts, including Surrey, Langley, Burnaby, Kamloops-Thompson, Nechako Lakes, Central Okanagan, Cowichan Valley, Mission, and Cariboo-Chilcotin, are all facing multi-million dollar shortfalls.
The Richmond School Board voted on Monday to lay off almost one hundred teachers and staff to combat a $6-million deficit, and trustee Donna Sargent says she welcomes the arrival of a special advisor in Vancouver.
"If that's what's needed for the ministry to pay attention to what is happening in education, bring it on," she said.
VSB chair Patti Bacchus isn't as enthusiastic about the process. She met with the advisor and her team on Wednesday, who she describes as accountants with no educational expertise.
"If there are questions about how we govern school districts and how our elected boards operate, I think that's a broader question for the public," she said.
"I don't think that's a question for a closed room team of accountants from the provincial government."
The special advisor's report is due at the end of May, a month after the VSB votes on an array of wide-ranging cuts.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Leah Hendry
