Newly appointed auditor to oversee Vancouver School Board

The B.C. government has made a new third-party appointment to oversee the work of the Vancouver School Board.

Education Minister Peter Fassbender says an independent special advisor will be appointed to review, evaluate and make recommendations aimed at helping the Vancouver School Board to balance its budget, reduce overhead and find administrative efficiencies.

The ministry says the special advisor will be an auditor leading a team that will look at the school district’s budget development and forecasting, accumulated surpluses, capital asset management, opportunities for administrative savings and board governance.

The advisor will also look at the audits from the past five years and any actions taken on past recommendations.

“To ensure every available tax dollar is going to student instruction, we need districts to stay focused on balancing their budgets and finding administrative savings and efficiencies,” said Fassbender.

Fassbender says the decision to appoint a special advisor comes after the board wrote to the government in February to advise they project a minimum budget shortfall of $15 million for the next school year.

Last month, B.C. government announced its new budget includes an additional $576 million for education over the next three years, but the school districts were later told they would be tasked with finding $29 million in administrative savings, to be followed by a further $25 million chop the following year.

In January, the Vancouver School Board announced it was considering a plan to sell some of their assets–from electronics to furniture–and lease them back in an effort to cut its deficit to $15 million.

Vancouver School Board Chairperson Christopher Richardson says he was surprised by the decision to appoint an independent special advisor, especially because last week the board had already signed a contract with the professional accounting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers to do what the provincially appointed advisor will be asked to do.

Richardson says the Ministry of Education was notified of the arrangement with Price Waterhouse Coopers earlier this month.

“We are not sure what another third-party advisor will do to help the situation, but we will cooperate,” says Richardson. “This board has an obligation to provide a balanced budget. We were intending to that and we realized the challenges that we were facing and sought to build on the advice that Price Waterhouse Coopers has provided us with previously.”