A special advisor sent to audit the Vancouver School Board’s budget was allegedly given access to private emails, including those sent to trustees by local parents.

Trustee Patti Bacchus said she and her colleagues were told by a superintendent that Peter Milburn, the man who has been investigating the district’s financial woes since July, had been granted access to "confidential information."

On top of confidential board minutes and recordings of meetings, that included “all emails,” she told CTV News on Friday.

Bacchus said she often receives emails from parents about their children, and is concerned that information could be accessed without parents' consent.

"I feel an obligation myself to keep their information private," she said in an interview outside the board office.

She said she is also concerned because she doesn't know exactly what information the provincial advisor could be looking at. When she asked the superintendent, who has since gone on sick leave, she said he told her he didn't know how far the advisor might be looking back.

Bacchus said she knows as a government employee that journalists and other members of the public can access her email through the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.

"What I am concerned about is in the case of an FOI request we would redact all third-party information. So any information about a student or a parent or any member of the public or the media for example who contacted me would have their information redacted," she said.

"I am concerned because this is an exceptional and unprecedented case where un-redacted personal information might have been accessed."

The trustee consulted a lawyer, who advised her to file a complaint to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. The office has confirmed to CTV News that it is investigating the complaint.

The Ministry of Education, which has hired Milburn to conduct interviews and review the board's books, said in a statement that the advisor is "preparing his report in full and complete compliance with B.C.'s privacy laws."

The ministry said it would be inappropriate to comment on whether the complaint has merit while the investigation is underway, but that the special advisor was following protocol for access to information outlined at his initial meeting with the acting board chair and senior management.

Milburn and his team "never made demands for information and never searched through VSB records themselves," the ministry said.

Minister Mike Bernier also released an open letter to parents of students at the VSB on Friday, the morning after announcing Milburn's review was granted a two-week extension.

Milburn was hired by the province at a rate of $80,000 for 2.5 months to look into why the VSB was the only one of the province's 60 school boards that was unable to balance its budget.

The report's deadline has been pushed back in light of allegations of bullying and harassment within the board, which emerged last week in a letter to the ministry.

"I know many of you are concerned about what's been happening around the Vancouver school board. I am too," Bernier wrote to parents.

"We are focused on making sure the VSB delivers a quality learning experience, unaffected by what is underway."

Bernier wrote that he wanted to reassure parents that the allegations are being taken seriously, and that WorkSafeBC has been called to investigate.

Although Bernier's advisor was hired to look into the board's financing, he said Milburn may have more information on the allegations of harassment.

The suggestion that Milburn has information on the WorkSafeBC investigation prompted questions about whether the emails he'd been granted access to contained evidence of workplace bullying.

But Bacchus said few people know any details of the allegations, telling CTV that no complaints have been made to the board, the board chair, or its acting superintendent.

"We'll still take it seriously, any suggestion that there has been that kind of occurrence is always taken seriously, but it will be challenging to investigate a complaint that no one has come forward to talk about," she said.

Despite the tensions caused by both the WorkSafeBC and provincial investigations, Bacchus said the board is still managing to get work done.

"If you go in you'll see people are at their desks. They're working," she said.

"Things are stable. Schools are open and it's business as usual."

But she added that she's concerned about "threats" made by the education minister through news conferences, where he's hinted at the possibility of firing members of the board.

"That is an attempt to destabilize the Vancouver school district. We are working very hard under difficult challenges," she said.

Bernier was asked whether he'd made decisions about terminating board staff, but said he would wait to make any decisions until he'd gathered all the information about its finances and management practices.

He said Milburn's report on the board will be delivered "soon," and that he was committed to making sure teachers, principals and staff will be supported.

"We will move carefully and responsibly through this situation," he wrote.

"We remain focused on ensuring the needs of our students and their education is at the heart of what happens."

With files from CTV Vancouver's Bhinder Sajan