Nothing Says Poverty Like a Spa Retreat

WINNIPEG, MB: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is calling on the Prairie Valley School Division (PVSD) today to explain why it is planning a 2-3 day spa retreat just after it discusses funding concerns with the Education Minister.

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According to board minutes from the February 8 meeting, school trustees and senior staff will meet with the Minister of Education to discuss concerns with the new funding model. Following that meeting they are heading to Temple Gardens in Moose Jaw for 2-3 days. According to the board’s meeting notes from February 8, 2012, if the provincial government’s new funding model had applied for the 2011-12 school year, the board would have received $9.7 million less than what it did. The board is quite concerned about the situation and has sent letters to MLAs and School Community Councils to urge parents to speak out against the funding changes. “It seems a bit much for the board to meet with the Minister of Education and complain about a lack of funding then head off to a spa to spend scarce tax dollars,” said CTF Prairie Director Colin Craig. “If you have a serious funding problem the first thing you do is cut back on spa retreats and use school board space for holding meetings.” Last year the PVSD school board went on retreats to Moose Jaw in April and Good Spirit Lake in August. Incredibly, the August meeting at Good Spirit Lake was a public school board meeting. Thus, if PVSD taxpayers wanted to participate, they would have had to have driven far outside the division to attend. The last time the CTF investigated the Prairie Valley School Division, it exposed how the division had orchestrated back-to-back school board motions to allow its Education Director to be able to retire momentarily, begin drawing on his pension and then get rehired in a following board motion; thus allowing him to draw a pension and salary at the same time.