There are over 250 school boards nation-wide in Canada, so it’s difficult for a non-profit, taxpayers’ watchdog organization like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation to keep tabs on each one.
But thanks to whistleblowers and vigilant taxpayers from Saskatchewan’s Prairie Valley School Division (PVSD), we’ve learned more about questionable things happening at the PVSD. Perhaps you might consider investigating some of the same issues with your own board to see what they are doing.
For starters, according to the PVSD’s minutes, its trustees will be meeting with the Minister of Education on March 14 to discuss concerns they have with the province’s new funding model. Yet after raising their concerns about a potential funding shortage, the trustees will then head off to a spa retreat in Moose Jaw for 2-3 days.
Yes, nothing says “we can’t afford a reduction in funding” like a trip to the spa.
In fact, the spa “retreat” is the second one for school trustees in the past eight months. Last August, trustees and senior board officials went to Good Spirit Lake for a couple days to squeeze in a few meetings and golf.
It’s true that many workplaces often hold retreats for staff each year, but one has to remember we’re talking about multiple, expensive retreats for part-time trustees – all the while crying poor.
Incredibly, while at the Good Spirit Lake retreat last year, the trustees even held one of their regularly scheduled public meetings there. That meant that if any parents in the PVSD wanted to attend the meeting, they would have had to drive outside the division for an hour or so to attend.
Speaking of driving, how does a school trustee rack up over $10,000 in mileage expenses in a single year? If you want to know, you might ask PVSD’s trustee Ms. Janet Kotylak who, including the high mileage bill, cost local taxpayers over $55,000 in pay and expenses in 2008-09. The board average that year was $24,670.
But the largesse doesn’t end there. At another board meeting, the division passed a couple interesting back-to-back motions. In the first motion, the board accepted the resignation of its Education Director, Ben Grebinski, so that he could retire and begin drawing on his pension. Moments later, the board passed a motion to hire him back so that he could also draw a salary.
Unfortunately for taxpayers, the pension plan Mr. Grebinski belongs to already has a $4.6 billion unfunded liability. Thus, the more people draw on the fund, the more it ends up costing taxpayers.
Another interesting aspect of the Prairie Valley School Board is that although its enrollment has decreased over the years – from 8,292 students in 2005 to 7,803 students in 2010 – the division is proceeding with a $6.6 million school board office expansion.
Local ratepayers are questioning whether the PVSD even has the authority for the office expansion and a number of other capital projects it is pursuing. You see, Ministry of Education guidelines state quite clearly that capital projects must be approved by the Ministry prior to proceeding. Yet if you look on the Ministry’s 2011-2015 approved capital projects list, many of the PVSD’s capital projects don’t appear to have approval.
One thing is for certain, school boards need local watch dogs too. Thanks to some diligent taxpayers at the Prairie Valley School Division, we all know more about what to look out for.
Colin Craig is the Prairie Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
