Fix mess at CBE fast or be fired, education minister tells elected trustees

[WinnipegFan]

Just curious about what the collective thought here are.... this could be a huge move by the government. I have some questions regarding some of the numbers represented here, but this is the first cold move to head towards dissolution of the board. Very similar to what happened with the Toronto public board a few years ago.


https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/br...-81a3ed23276d/

[IliketoPuck]

Interesting.

It's always been my personal belief that electing trustees with no governance experience could lead to weak leadership over time, but I'd like to see what the report says before going too far into the weeds.

[octothorp]

I've got concerns with the CBE, but I'm even less a fan of Adriana LaGrange, and I'm highly concerned that she'll use firing the CBE board as part of her continued agenda to push private schools and further defund the public schools relative to them.

[Krovikan]

I've never understood why I elect trustees, but I just refused to vote, since I didn't' have children. Now that I have a child, I vote, and I'm even more perplexed, finding out information on the candidates is near impossible, so I end up voting based on the name of the person?

Seriously, we should stop electing trustees, or any other public service job in the bureaucracy. That is why I elect an MLA, MP, or Council Member to represent my interests and properly gather information on the people that are running these boards. Ya, there is issues with that, but it's better than electing random people...

[Skaloper]

I think it's clear that the CBE Board has problems with spending. I am not however supporting LaGrange threatening them that they will be replaced if things are not fixed. We are in uncharted territory with the oil downturn/COVID and should not overreact. LaGrange should be hiring someone that has experience to help the trustees fix the mess.

I'm curious if there is anything that can be done with the building they are renting for 2 to 3 times the standard market going rate.

Let's hope that whatever comes out of this they will eventually be able to properly pay staff completing internships. I find it absurd that students are being forced to pay tuition for education and then work an entire year without pay (School Psychologists in Calgary).

[TorqueDog]

First, here's the same article without the opinion shoehorned in: https://calgaryherald.com/news/alber...-6f149fbbd784/

Yeah, I'll be the first to say I have no idea about anything going on at the CBE and as someone who isn't having kids, it isn't the first thing on my list to look into -- not that it isn't important to our city and future as a whole, it just isn't something that I would look into of my own volition. I'd want to see the Grant Thornton report before really jumping to any conclusions.

[Envitro]

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...

[Torture]

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.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Torture

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.

It's ok, if the Government gets investigated for this, they'll just fire the investigator.

[guzzy]

I am willing to bet you could cut 40-50% of the jobs at CBE and finds ways to run it efficiently. They are a brutal organization.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by guzzy

I am willing to bet you could cut 40-50% of the jobs at CBE and finds ways to run it efficiently. They are a brutal organization.

I admittedly don't know much about the CBE aside from hearing the same friend of a friend of a friend hearsay everybody else does. I don't have kids, I don't have any skin in the game.

You can't argue with the results though.

EDMONTON -- Alberta students are the best in Canada and among the top in the world in reading and science, according to results from an international standardized test.

The Programme for International Student Assesment (PISA) measures the achievement of 15-year-old students through a test it administers across 79 countries.

Alberta students scored third in the world in reading and fourth in science. Alberta students scored second highest among Canadian provinces in math, behind only Quebec.


"We remain the envy of the world, when it comes to our outstanding achievement results," said Alberta Teachers Association president Jason Schilling, noting that teachers and students should be "very, very proud" of the results.

"We have outstanding public schools, with amazing teachers and a world-class curriculum."

The ATA says the results show how if Alberta were a country, its public education system would globally rank third in reading, third in science and eighth in math.

https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-...show-1.4713229

[#-3]

I think that public school boards would be a prime place to test out sortation as a form of governance, since 90% of people voting for a trustee has no idea who the trustee is, don't really seem to care who is elected, and have no way on following the actions of the person they elected.

Have some kind of nomination barrier to have people put their name into a hat (like 250 signatures for the district). Then get an computer program randomly select the board from the nominees selecting for a high level of economic diversity (different income levels, parents of young children, parents of old children, non parents, white collar workers, blue collar workers...).

The biggest problem with this system, is that the government would probably need to appoint someone too find and help people become nominees.

There is some evidence that people who gain power through random chance are more likely to be altruistic with the power they have, understanding that it is luck that led them to where they are. Those who win power from their own efforts are more likely to do shady things and put in inferior efforts, feeling they earned the position they are in.

[guzzy]

Originally Posted by octothorp

I've got concerns with the CBE, but I'm even less a fan of Adriana LaGrange, and I'm highly concerned that she'll use firing the CBE board as part of her continued agenda to push private schools and further defund the public schools relative to them.

I want to start off by saying I am no fan of Kenney and didn't vote UCP in the last election. Your comment has no merit. The UCP has never pushed for more private schools, nor defunding the current system. CBE is incompetent. Plain and simple. Who negotiated the $47/sq ft lease with an annual 2.5% increase for 11 years. That is insane. CBE needs to fire all executive, upper and middle management. Start over with results driven people. Make this about public education again.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by guzzy

I am willing to bet you could cut 40-50% of the jobs at CBE and finds ways to run it efficiently. They are a brutal organization.

I'd take that bet. I think something like 80-90% of the CBE budget is on personnel and front line staff. I have no idea how you could hack a third of that (or more) and come away with anything reasonable.

This whole thing with LaGrange is really just hilariously pathetic. She got upset when they were cutting teachers after they said they were keeping the budget as it was, reversed that decision mid-year (retroactively!), and lo and behold the CBE doesn't have buried gold anywhere to fund things.

I'm pretty critical of the CBE. It's in desperate need of change, and electing trustees is utterly pointless in my opinion. But that doesn't mean that the track the Alberta Government is pursuing here is sensible.

[IliketoPuck]

$47/psf for a lease located outside downtown.....that is atrocious.

https://www.google.com/search?q=CBE+...hrome&ie=UTF-8

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).

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...osts-1.4607595

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.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by guzzy

I want to start off by saying I am no fan of Kenney and didn't vote UCP in the last election. Your comment has no merit. The UCP has never pushed for more private schools, nor defunding the current system. CBE is incompetent. Plain and simple. Who negotiated the $47/sq ft lease with an annual 2.5% increase for 11 years. That is insane. CBE needs to fire all executive, upper and middle management. Start over with results driven people. Make this about public education again.

Are you sure about that?

Alberta's UCP government has removed the word "public" from all Alberta school boards, affecting eight of 41 divisions across the province and leaving educators and administrators scrambling to figure out why.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...ards-1.5275561

The proposed shift is part of an extensive overhaul of Alberta’s school system as the new government moves to replace the 31-year-old School Act with an amended version of the Education Act.

Among the changes, set to take effect this fall, is removing the cap on the number of charter schools across the province, which under the previous legislation had to remain at or below 15 schools.

Barb Silva, spokeswoman for the Support Our Students advocacy group, says the change will allow the province to promote privatization and undermine public education.

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...public-system/

The Alberta government’s decision to freeze education funding has led to a frenzy of cost-cutting at school boards that had expected new money to deal with a flood of additional students that shows no sign of abating.

Alberta’s Opposition New Democrats said on Monday that an analysis shows school boards had thought they would receive a $210-million funding boost this academic year in the first budget from Premier Jason Kenney’s government. But the budget, unveiled last October, contained no new money for the 15,000 more students who entered the province’s schools, leading to classrooms that are increasingly crowded.

School boards have cut budgets for infrastructure and transportation, and dipped into rainy day funds. Calgary’s public school board planned to cut 317 teaching positions, but was given one-time permission in late 2019 to use maintenance cash to pay salaries.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/cana...-cost-cutting/

[GGG]

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.

[InglewoodFan]

Originally Posted by guzzy

Who negotiated the $47/sq ft lease with an annual 2.5% increase for 11 years. That is insane.

By and large, Gordon Dirks is responsible. He was chair at the time. His punishment was being made education minister for the whole province.

[Ozy_Flame]

Interesting history Alberta has with this sort of stuff:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1263532011777474560

[Slava]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

$47/psf for a lease located outside downtown.....that is atrocious.

https://www.google.com/search?q=CBE+...hrome&ie=UTF-8

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).

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...osts-1.4607595

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.

I agree with you on that. But the problem is that this was "sort-of" an election issue in 2010. I say only sort of because no one really knows what they're voting for when it comes to trustees, and no one really pays attention to these things. So there's only so much you can do to bring light to these situations.

And as far as that building lease and such goes these days, the current CBE is tied in. I mean plenty of us said it was a terrible deal back then and shouldn't be pursued. Then 2014 came along and obviously this looks even worse! But if you're the CBE today, dealing with this years budget, you're kind of caught?