School officials apologize over handling of funds for new building

SALMON ARM – Officials in the North Okanagan – Shuswap School District have been forced to apologize and promise greater transparency when it comes to the distribution of district funds.

Many parents are reacting with anger to news about how the district paid for a new administration building, in an era when school closures seem like a continual threat.

Read More: North Okanagan – Shuswap school closure decision delayed

Parents have learned that some of the money used to pay for the building came from surplus operating funds from past years being transferred to the capital budget.

Some parents feel they were mislead.

“I would say parents as a whole have had their trust broken,” said District Parent Advisory Council president Kari Wilkinson. “It goes back to that whole lack of transparency and the messaging. We were told one thing and another thing was happening.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I would say parents as a whole have had their trust broken," said District Parent Advisory Council president Kari Wilkinson. "It goes back to that whole lack of transparency and the messaging. We were told one thing and another thing was happening."

When questions were raised about the overall cost of the building, in February, the school district superintendent brought up the idea of separate capital and operating budgets.

But what Borthistle did not make clear was that previous years operating surpluses had been transferred to the capital fund and used to pay for the building.

“I have met with partner groups and expressed my apology that this was not discussed publicly. I have accepted responsibility for not ensuring that this was not brought forward to people.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I have met with partner groups and expressed my apology that this was not discussed publicly. I have accepted responsibility for not ensuring that this was not brought forward to people."

At a meeting Wednesday the school board chair said the board itself was also taking responsibility.

“On behalf of the board, I apologize that this process was not completed in a transparent way as part of the year-end public budget process,” said board chair Bobbi Johnson in a statement that was sent to media. “At future meetings we will be addressing how the district plans to move forward so that the budget process is as transparent as possible.”

That future won’t include two of the existing trustees who have resigned.

One trustee indicated, in an email, she was resigning because she was unhappy that the district didn’t go “forward with consolidating schools.” She asked not to be contacted again.

The other said, in a resignation letter, that he didn’t have the same vision for the school district as the majority of other trustees and that the stress of being on the board had impacted his health.

In their resignation letters, neither specifically cited the controversy over transferring funds as one of the reasons they were leaving.

The district has defended the transfers themselves saying the majority of school districts make these types of transfers.

“Staff would be recommending that surplus funds be transferred and not returned back to programs because we are in a declining budge situation,” said Borthistle. “If you use surplus funds to support programs it just means that you are going to have to take those funds out in the following year plus whatever reduction is required in that year.”