210,000 SQFT X $47/psf annual (unclear if utilities and taxes are additional) = $9.87MM per year in lease expenses. A rate of $10/psf alone would yield annual savings of $8MM.
Here's an article from 2018 that suggests they were mislabeling costs associated with the lease as well. Lease costs, locked in, will escalate to $62/psf at the end of the lease. This was from an audit done by David Eggen (NDP).
How the holy hell do you allow a 2.5% per year, indefinite escalation clause, to be included in your lease, when you are a quasi government organization with no real credit risk? If I could fire the people responsible for that decision, I would do so five times over. If I could give a high five to the folks negotiating the lease on the other side of the table, I would (they probably popped champagne, to be honest).
The building decision alone is inexcusable, and we haven't even scratched the surface on any of the other potential mismanagement. If they have no idea how to negotiate a simple lease, what else are they letting slip through?
I think we can put to bed the partisan non-sense here. Just because they were elected doesn't mean they know what they are doing, or that they should be given carte blanche to mindlessly dole out tax payer dollars due to inefficient or non-existent governance practices. I would have openly applauded the NDP for doing the same thing, and I'm glad that finally someone is taking the CBE trustees to task.
A lot of folks here are complaining about the quality of service being provided during the pandemic. If things were more efficiently managed at the board level, the immediate beneficiary is front line services, and by extension, the kids.
The lease was entered into over a decade ago. Was it a huge mistake? Absolutely. Does that reflect on the current board? Nope.
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When I have compared the CBE and CCSD in the past the CCSD has always had smaller class sizes. This past year when Kenny did his moronic budget cuts the CBE had to use its maintenance Budget to pay teachers whereas the CCSD and I believe the Edmonton boards did not.
So at the surface it appears that the CBE is worse than the other Calgary major board. The interesting thing is that this doesn’t target the CCSD. If it were just an attack on public education to encourage Private eduction all 4 major Edmonton and Calgary boards should be being targeted.
Exactly.
If it was a purely partisan attack, there wouldn't be a six month window to comply.
The education minister, herself a former trustee, is giving them a legitimate chance to improve.
If they don't, or prove incapable, they get held accountable. The ball is in their court now.
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Elected board to be potentially fired after audit found no clear evidence of the alleged reckless financial mismanagement. Certainly some systemic long term problems but I don't see the reckless mismanagement LaGrange alleged.
Replaced by appointed trustees by one of the most partisan Governments we've seen. Make no mistake, this is an attack on democracy and public education.
That seems like an over reaction even given the performance of the UCP
Quote:
The order also suggests ways to reduce expenses, including evaluating alternative ways to recoup the cost of the Education Centre lease, considering the end of half-days to reduce busing costs, and reigning in non-union salaries by developing a long-range strategy to bring them more in line with the private sector.
The ministerial order also demands the CBE provide a written update to Alberta Education on progress by July 31, with monthly updates in August, September and October, and all requirements to be completed by Nov. 30.
The ministerial order does not say whether LaGrange will fire or disband the board if the requirements are not met, although when the audit was originally launched last fall, LaGrange confirmed she would not rule that out.
That seems like an over reaction even given the performance of the UCP
What in particular do you disagree with.
The adversarial approach. Accusing them of "reckless financial mismanagement" (which was the reason for the audit and was not really shown ) Threatening to fire elected officials and replace them with appointed ones.
You could just say something along the lines of "I look forward to working with the board to implement the recommendations of this audit. There has been a long history of mismanagement at the CBE and we look forward to correcting that and implementing better fiscal governance and improving education outcomes for our children"
And then if you don't make progress, fine, threaten to fire them.
Last edited by Torture; 05-21-2020 at 12:29 PM.
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I'll give an example of the sort of difficulties that we have with the CBE, as I think maybe concrete examples are useful: as a member of a parent council, we have certain fundraisers we conduct through the year. We're fortunate to be able to run a casino charity, which definitely accounts for the vast majority of our fundraising, but we don't like to be 100% dependent on that. So we run other events that serve as fundraisers. However, due to recent CBE changes, we now need to pay to use the school for our own events, even if these events are attempting to raise money for school activities. Which essentially means that we start any fundraising event a thousand dollars in the hole. This has required us to kill some fundraising events as they'd simply run a loss, and at least for the time-being, become solely reliant on our casino. If something were to happen that caused our casino to get cancelled (such as, *cough* a pandemic), that would effectively wipe out 18 months worth of programmed events for our kids (everything from swimming lessons to in-school residencies to field trips), as well other things we fund, such as new technology purchases, with no avenue to make up that funding.
The CBE is a difficult-enough bureaucracy that it's really difficult to elevate issues like this to get them resolved. It of course seems ridiculous to us that the CBE wants us to share in funding things like technology for the school, but actively works against us conducting fundraisers. Our teachers are great. Our principal is great. Our support staff is great. But dealing with anything at the CBE level feels just impossible.
The lease was entered into over a decade ago. Was it a huge mistake? Absolutely. Does that reflect on the current board? Nope.
Their refusal to pro-actively take measures to reduce that expense absolutely reflects on them. And again, that's just one simple example. What else is there behind the scenes of the bureaucracy that suffers from the same issues?
Clearly this was a big enough issue that two previous governments were also concerned enough to look into it.
Could it perhaps be that in fact, the CBE is not as well run as other boards, has systemic problems with fiscal management that stretch back over a decade, and is in dire need of governance improvements?
As a taxpayer, I am all for holding government institutions accountable for how they utilize funds, especially ones that have shown their past stewardship deserves closer scrutiny.
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Their refusal to pro-actively take measures to reduce that expense absolutely reflects on them. And again, that's just one simple example. What else is there behind the scenes of the bureaucracy that suffers from the same issues?
Clearly this was a big enough issue that two previous governments were also concerned enough to look into it.
Could it perhaps be that in fact, the CBE is not as well run as other boards, has systemic problems with fiscal management that stretch back over a decade, and is in dire need of governance improvements?
As a taxpayer, I am all for holding government institutions accountable for how they utilize funds, especially ones that have shown their past stewardship deserves closer scrutiny.
I think that the provincial government likes to have the school boards in place for this exact reason. The province does whatever to mess around with the funding and then basically says "yeah, that sucks...talk to the school board."
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Having sat on a few boards myself (youth custody and extended health care rather than education) I can say a few things that I am sure apply to every board including the CBE, first they are all feeder boards, they are the minor leagues for local council and MLA's selection, when you sit on a board you find that there are a few members who are there for the long term that have an interest in the actual board but there are always one or two members, usually lawyers, accountants or local business owners that drop in for a couple of years to pad their resume, show the local party apparatchiks they can be trusted not to do anything to wacky when in the public eye is on them.
My two boards being minor were but the first step in that process, once they had done a year or two with us they would run for school board or parks board out here, a term or two with them and they run for council or mayor, that leads to MLA and Provincial posts if they don't screw up. None of them had the slightest interest in what the boards did and all of the decisions were actually made by the permanent staff, the Executive Director and his or her underlings, the only real and important decision the boards make is in choosing the staff that then decide everything for them, after that they pretty much rubber stamp what ever is put in front of them.
CBE response (emailed out just a few minutes ago). Spoilered for length.
Spoiler!
Board of Trustee Response to Independent, External Review of the Finances and Governance of the CBE
In November 2019, Education Minister Adriana LaGrange announced an independent, external review of the finances and governance of the CBE. We received the report yesterday afternoon.
We are pleased that the review confirmed that there are no financial irregularities or improprieties. The report highlighted that our spending is fully aligned with that of other metro school jurisdictions and that we have strong financial processes and controls. The review also found that we have very efficient operations, especially in the area of operations and maintenance.
The Ministerial Order outlines areas for improvement related to governance processes and financial oversight. We are committed to working with Alberta Education on the plan to comply with the Ministerial Order.
A number of the directives in the Ministerial Order have already been addressed as part of CBE’s 2020-21 budget such as:
deploying 70 teachers back into schools;
making changes to transportation to align with funding and mandated service levels;
moving the Kingsland welcome centre for new Canadians into the Education Centre and exploring other options to maximize the lease space;
reducing and standardizing the learning leader teaching positions across the system. These learning leaders are teachers with the majority of their time spent in classrooms;
consolidating our outreach program from four to three sites to further align with government funding for outreach services; and
reducing English Language Learning supports from seven to five years to align with government funding.
Other work underway by the Board of Trustees including:
Ongoing policy review: The Board of Trustees continuously reviews its governance policies and previously identified those policies referenced in the Ministerial Order.
Governance support: To be effective governors of a $1.2 billion organization, the Board already accesses the advice and support of external experts. We look forward to expanding our complement of governance coaches.
The citizens of Calgary expect that we will be good stewards of public dollars and we will continue to spend those dollars to support student learning. We acknowledge there is always room to improve.
As a public school board, the CBE welcomes all students regardless of their background, ability or financial status. Our students continually demonstrate strong academic results and outperform the province on diploma exams and provincial achievement tests. Strong academic results is the best evidence of our effectiveness and value for dollars. As democratically elected trustees, we are committed to governing with integrity and making decisions in the best interests of the more than 126,000 students we serve.
For more information, visit cbe.ab.ca/governmentreview.
Frequently Asked Questions
Has the CBE considered other options with regards to the Education Centre lease including subletting the building?
The Education Centre lease was signed by a previous Administration and Board of Trustees at a time when rents were rising exponentially, and we were not permitted to buy or build our own space. The lease arrangement was approved by the provincial government at the time.
While the option to purchase the building has been recently explored by the CBE, various other options have been considered over the years. The CBE has engaged a range of experts in developing options around the Education Centre lease. We are happy to continue that work. The CBE has sublet some floors in the past, however, due to market conditions, we are not currently able to find new tenants.
Budget 2020-21 includes a consolidation of the Kingsland Welcome Centre into the Education Centre to better utilize resources.
What did the report say about salary costs at the CBE?
Interestingly, the report did not make any explicit comments on salary costs at the CBE. The majority of our staff are unionized. Less than 1.5 per cent of all CBE employees are not covered by a collective agreement. In 2016 an independent salary review was commissioned by the CBE for these exempt employees and salary bands were reduced. We recognized that market conditions have changed in Calgary since 2016. In accordance with the Ministerial Order the Board of Trustees will use an independent third party to perform an updated salary survey to determine if CBE exempt employee salaries are in line with other school boards, public and private entities.
Of course, the largest collective agreement relates to the Alberta Teachers’ Association which is currently negotiated by the Province of Alberta. For the others, the CBE routinely tests its compensation levels against market conditions for the relevant roles.
As well, the CBE is fully compliant with Government regulations related to the compensation and benefits for the Chief Superintendent. Compensation levels for the remaining senior officials flows from that regulation. Superintendent salaries and benefits have been frozen for more than five years.
Similarly, remuneration for the Board of Trustees is at the same levels as it was in 2009.
The CBE also has a comprehensive compensation disclosure list on our main website to demonstrate our openness and transparency. The CBE is one of a very few school jurisdictions in Alberta who make this information readily available.
It is being reported that 22 per cent of employees with teaching certificates are not in the classroom. Is this correct?
Approximately 90 per cent of employees with teaching certificates are classroom teachers. Another eight per cent are principals or assistant principals. In some smaller schools principals and assistant principals carry a teaching load. The remaining two per cent fill centralized staff fill centralized teaching support roles. By centralizing key functions, the CBE can better resource and support our 250 schools. Finally, in budget 2020-21 the CBE is deploying approximately 70 of those centralized teaching positions back to schools.
The majority of the 22 per cent of employees referred to in the report are classroom teachers who receive a small additional allowance to compensate them for additional responsibilities in schools.
Can someone who is of the "they are pushing the private school agenda" please explain why they continually hammer the CBE but not the CSSC or the Edmonton school boards?
If you have 4 boards and 1 is a total economic cluster#### and the other three seem to be doing just fine, how is that the government being unrealistic?
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A friend of ours works for the CBE as a manager, and she constantly talks about how messed up it is to work they, how mismanaged the entire CBE is, and how they need a massive shakeup from the top-down.
So this doesn't really surprise me...
I've dealt with the CBE as an outside provider dozens of times. The people on the ground, low level workers and managers, are pretty good and seem to give a crap. Things were regularly done ass backwards though and when I asked my contact why don't we do things a different way they just roll their eyes and say it's not their call.
Can someone who is of the "they are pushing the private school agenda" please explain why they continually hammer the CBE but not the CSSC or the Edmonton school boards?
If you have 4 boards and 1 is a total economic cluster#### and the other three seem to be doing just fine, how is that the government being unrealistic?
Because it doesn't fit their preferred narrative of current Alberta political discussion.
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Can someone who is of the "they are pushing the private school agenda" please explain why they continually hammer the CBE but not the CSSC or the Edmonton school boards?
If you have 4 boards and 1 is a total economic cluster#### and the other three seem to be doing just fine, how is that the government being unrealistic?
Dammit man! You hate Unions and Teachers and probably Immigrants! How dare you!! How DARE you!!!
On an entirely unrelated and entirely more civil and less accusatory note, the CBE being packed to the rafters with idiots most people wouldnt trust to cook hot-dogs might be the worst kept secret in the Province.
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Replaced by appointed trustees by one of the most partisan Governments we've seen. Make no mistake, this is an attack on democracy and public education.
Several years ago, the education minister fired the 125 elected board members for Northland SD and replaced the board with a single trustee. The fallout was pretty significant.
Can someone who is of the "they are pushing the private school agenda" please explain why they continually hammer the CBE but not the CSSC or the Edmonton school boards?
If you have 4 boards and 1 is a total economic cluster#### and the other three seem to be doing just fine, how is that the government being unrealistic?
My father who has taught in the CSSC for 32 years absolutely agrees that the provincial government is defunding both the CBE and CSSC in order to promote more private and charter schools. His colleagues in our hockey pool agree. This story is about the CBE but all the budget cuts apply to both boards and both are bleeding staff and increasing class sizes for next year.
The law in Alberta is very clear about how much money public school boards can spend on administration. I think it's around 4%, but that needs a fact check. All our public boards are within the limit on admin spending. There is no grand spending problem at the CBE.
I am shocked that people are cheering on the dismantling of our public education system. The government isn't proposing a new system here. They are only threatening to dismantle the existing one.
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Can someone who is of the "they are pushing the private school agenda" please explain why they continually hammer the CBE but not the CSSC or the Edmonton school boards?
If you have 4 boards and 1 is a total economic cluster#### and the other three seem to be doing just fine, how is that the government being unrealistic?
To be clear, I don't think that calling for an audit of the CBE is a sign of any sort of agenda on its own. But if democratically elected officials are removed and replaced with political appointees without clearcut proof of wrongdoing by these trustees, that's a huge problem. Many of LaGrange's other actions have undermined public school boards, such as lifting the cap on charter schools in the province, a proposal to increase the ratio of funding devoted to private school boards, or requiring the boards to stop listing themselves as public. As a former catholic school board trustee herself, she's made no secret of her belief of the superiority of that system.
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Dammit man! You hate Unions and Teachers and probably Immigrants! How dare you!! How DARE you!!!
On an entirely unrelated and entirely more civil and less accusatory note, the CBE being packed to the rafters with idiots most people wouldnt trust to cook hot-dogs might be the worst kept secret in the Province.
Correction;
He also hates; nurses, doctors, and all essential workers.
Several years ago, the education minister fired the 125 elected board members for Northland SD and replaced the board with a single trustee. The fallout was pretty significant.
What sort of fall-out? No more cushy, jobs to milk from the government teet?
Can someone who is of the "they are pushing the private school agenda" please explain why they continually hammer the CBE but not the CSSC or the Edmonton school boards?
If you have 4 boards and 1 is a total economic cluster#### and the other three seem to be doing just fine, how is that the government being unrealistic?
I don't know the situation of the Edmonton boards, but I think that the CSSC had some financial reserves and as a result were able to keep things rolling. The CBE doesn't have those reserves, and here we are.
To me, it's not about a political narrative though. These problems were there with the NDP in power as well. They'd make promises like "no school fees" or whatever, and then the board would complain they had no money.
I think that what happened here is that the province decided to retroactively cut the budget after saying they wouldn't. They basically said there was no need to lay off teachers and the CBE issued layoff notices. Pretty clearly, the province was not pleased with that, because it was a complete PR disaster, so the minister investigated them for financial impropriety (which I think the NDP had done as well).
Maybe the reality is there is not enough money? Most of us in this thread have been in public schools lately, and it's not like these kids are in the lap of luxury. The buildings are not well maintained, a lot of the equipment is dated (with the exception being what the parents fund raise for), and it's not as though there's an abundance of people saying there is gobs of money that's just not being spent properly.
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