B.C. school districts are being asked to cough up $3 million to cover the cost of property insurance – an extra expense that’s not sitting well with some Vancouver school trustees.
Vision Vancouver trustees Patti Bacchus, Mike Lombardi, Sharon Gregson, and Ken Clement on Sunday called on Education Minister George Abbott to reverse the decision, which board chairwoman Bacchus described as a “real blow” to school districts already grappling with budget shortfalls.
“It’s hard,” Bacchus told The Province Sunday. “To come a week after we submitted a very difficult budget, now we’ve got to find another $291,000 in this stretched budget that’s been scraped away at for too many years.”
Lombardi echoed her thoughts.
“We worked hard to protect classroom services in this budget,” he said.
“Yet now we’re facing the equivalent loss of over four full-time teaching positions due to costs being downloaded to our district.”
In the past, the provincial government has paid the premiums for the self-insured property-loss program.
But “due to ministry funding pressures,” B.C.’s 60 school districts will now be required to contribute a total of $3 million toward a new property loss pool,” said the ministry in a May 11 email sent out to the school districts.
The change is a ploy “to save them money and get us to pay for something they have previously paid for,” said Bacchus, calling it the latest in a series of expenses the ministry is off-loading onto schools, such as carbon offset purchases and new reporting costs for the annual facilities-grant funding.
The $3 million will be raised from all school districts based on the replacement value of their buildings, ranging from $4,260 for the Central Coast district and $291,285 for Vancouver.
The Saanich school district, which has threatened to submit a deficit budget this year, will have to find an additional $36,000, while Greater Victoria has to make room for another $125,900 in its budget.
In addition, the program’s deductible will also increase from $3,000 to $10,000, meaning districts will have to pay out-of-pocket for claims below $10,000.
Bacchus said the Vancouver board is still crunching the numbers, but expects the large deductible hike to be a “big hit because a lot of claims will be in that range.”
The changes will take effect July 1.
Bacchus, who was only made aware of the change last Friday, said the board hasn’t had time to come to a formal position yet, but expects the other non-Vision Vancouver trustees will share the same concerns.
Surrey school board chairwoman Laurae McNally said she was not aware of the new premiums, but expects the issue to be discussed in this week’s upcoming board meeting. Surrey, the province’s largest school district, will have to shell out $243,000.
Last year, the Vancouver School Board submitted a balanced budget as required by provincial law, but not before a well-publicized spat between Bacchus and then-minister Margaret MacDiarmid over what the school board called inadequate provincial funding, and what the ministry viewed as poor decisions and board mismanagement.
This year, the school board closed a $7-million funding gap by cutting jobs, shaving 10 days off the school year, and increasing parking fees.
Bacchus said the board has a good relationship with Abbott and is hopeful he will re-consider the policy.
Abbott was not available for comment Sunday, but a ministry spokesman said the changes to the property-loss program were not taken lightly.
The main reason behind the change was to bring property-loss insurance in line with liability coverage, which school districts already pay premiums for, said the spokesman.
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