Skip to content

Core review concerns school trustees

Province reviews services for cost cutting

Powell River school trustees are concerned about Victoria’s core review process and what it could mean for locally elected boards.

Two trustees from the Powell River Board of Education attended the BC School Trustee Association’s (BCSTA) meeting in Vancouver last month. Education minister Peter Fassbender spoke at the meeting about trustee concerns in their role in labour relations in the province’s kindergarten to grade 12 system.

Since the BC Liberals were elected in 2001, rumours have swelled that local boards could be replaced with regional boards like those found in BC’s eight health authorities. Those changes have not happened, but since Fassbender took the education portfolio this spring, he has set to promote signing a 10-year contract with teachers and making changes to the way BC Public School Employers’ Association (BCPSEA) bargains.

The provincial government is currently engaged in looking at all programs and services it provides and ministers have been tasked with identifying those which require direction or change. Once these programs and services are identified, a core review working group will present its recommendations to cabinet for decisions, said Bill Bennett, minister of energy and mines and minister responsible for core review, in a release about the review process.

BCSTA president Theresa Rezansoff said during the association’s October meeting that she has particular concerns about the government’s review of educational governance.

“It is our opportunity to build a strong case for the importance of locally elected boards of education and to dispel myths of easy economic gains that amalgamation or regionalization might bring,” she said in her speech. The association cannot and will not be complacent about the review, she added.

The past few months have been anything but normal with the new education minister and the changes made to BCPSEA, she said.

This summer the minister hired lead negotiator Peter Cameron to bargain on behalf of the employers and the government. Fassbender appointed Michael Marchbank, a public administrator, to govern the BCPSEA after its board of directors were dismissed. The minister also made adjustments to BCPSEA staffing and created a bargaining team which includes a direct representative from BCSTA.

Powell River trustee Doug Skinner said that the local board has received the terms of reference for the review, but it is waiting for more detailed information about how it will be involved.

“All boards [of education] share concerns about this,” said Skinner, adding that many, including the board of education on the Lower Sunshine Coast, have requested meetings with the minister to discuss suggestions.

Trustee Steve Formosa said he is skeptical about the purpose of the educational governance portion of the review. “More than anything else it’s an efficiency measure,” said Formosa. “They would like to probably make decisions without consulting us.”

Skinner added that he thinks Formosa’s sentiment is shared by “almost every board in the province.”

Trustee Mary James, however, takes a slightly more optimistic view of the review. “It’s good to see how things go and make changes if you have to,” she said.