The Vancouver School Board will now have to submit regular financial reports to the government, Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid announced Wednesday.

"Our intent is to actually monitor the financial situation of Vancouver regularly," MacDiarmid told reporters at a press conference. "We will be asking for regular updates."

MacDiarmid said that the move is meant to ensure wise spending by the board.

"I don't have confidence in this board at this time," she said, although she added that she will not be recommending that school trustees be fired from their positions on the board.

She also expressed disappointment that the board did not take recommendations from comptroller general Cheryl Wenezenki-Yolland seriously in preparing its 2010-11 budget, which the board will vote on tonight.

"We have gone through (Wenezenki-Yolland's) report, and we have come up with close to $1 million in saving that could be made," MacDiarmid said.

Those savings include contracting out cafeteria services and ending the practice of renting outside space for programs like adult education.

Later Wednesday afternoon, Bacchus said at a press conference that the board would not be following through on the latest suggestions from MacDiarmid.

"We have looked at where she says we could immediately find savings. These are not proposals that have been supported by our senior management team," Bacchus said.

She also pointed out that current cafeteria services are based on collective agreements.

"Is she suggesting we tear up collective agreements?" Bacchus asked. "She hasn't provided us with any realistic short-term advice."

At tonight's meeting, the board will announce a list of as many as 10 schools that it plans to close to cut costs and address a $17.23-million budget shortfall.

The board forwarded its latest budget proposal to MacDiarmid on June 18. Along with school closures, the board also plans to cut 162 full-time staff positions and cancel some programs, for a total savings of $15.73 million.

That leaves the VSB with a shortfall of $1.5 million, which the board has recommended should be covered with a transfer from its capital reserves.

The school board has been locked in a war of words with the education ministry since March, when the board announced that it was facing an $18-million budget shortfall, a figure that has since been revised several times.

In response to what she called "unacceptable" proposed cuts, MacDiarmid assigned Wenezenki-Yolland to review the school board's books in April.

Wenezenki-Yolland released her report on June 4, slamming trustees for poor financial management and a lack of strategic planning, and identified $12 million worth of revenue and cost-savings measures.

Bacchus said last week that the board has rejected several of Wenezenki-Yolland's recommendations, including raising rents for child-care providers.

"We don't think that the comptroller general's recommendations…could ever be considered in the best interest of students and parents," Bacchus said at the time.