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

[Ozy_Flame]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1263509542496686080

This seems extremely unprofessional to be Tweeting, especially as a Minister.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Slava

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.

This is ultimately what it comes down to, and LaGrange said as much when she was a school board trustee herself. And I get that when you're working for a school board you have to say you need more money, and when you get appointed to a government position you have to say there is no more money, and if that was the extent of the rhetoric I wouldn't have a problem with either side in this particular spat. But acting like this is a problem caused by the current trustees or that they should be able to easily fix it is where I think the government is out of line.

[kermitology]

Sorry, are you expecting professionalism from any UCP ministers? I think there is a requirement to be unprofessional to be a minister.

[#-3]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

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'd say there are a substantial group of people who view public education as a key cornerstone in our social contract, believing that staying educated in an information age, and having an informed electorate requires broadly available access to basic education for anyone regardless of circumstances.

I think from past rhetoric and actions people are fearful that this government does not share in holding the institution as a cornerstone of our social contract. And the way the political right has general behaved over the past ten to fifteen years has not inspired trust that the make decisions good faith.

Right or wrong people are primed to believe this government would be happy to reduce public school boards to the benefit of privet school boards, and aren't inclined to be charitable towards the actions taken in opposition to our schools.

I'm more of a wait and see montra with this one, I'm thinking they might have made the decision for the right reason, but have little faith they'll will not use the opportunity to lessen the education my children getting from the CBE, and i am hopeful I am proven wrong.

[IliketoPuck]

I haven't seen the actual report posted, but after some digging I found it here:

https://www.alberta.ca/assets/docume...nal-report.pdf

Looking forward to discussing it thoroughly after everyone has had a chance to read it and make an informed opinion.

[IliketoPuck]

I'm only halfway through so far. But this is a pretty damning indictment on the governance structure of a $1.3Bn organization.

Update:

Having finished the report, I'm really surprised that the governance structure is as loose as indicated. This is clearly an inherited problem, but an extremely concerning one, and I'm really disconcerted that such a serious gap has been allowed to exist for so long in one of the largest boards in the country.

So while it isn't something that the current trustees necessarily created, it is certainly something that they are responsible for improving upon, and at a minimum, not exacerbating. It appears that the focus of the trustees when confronted with potential issues was not to tackle them and improve, but instead to become almost tribal in their defense of the kingdom.

Lack of sophisticated financial budgeting and board infighting in the midst of an economic shock....the CBE was swimming without shorts when the tide went out.

[wwkayaker]

Originally Posted by cam_wmh

What sort of fall-out? No more cushy, jobs to milk from the government teet?

The pay for those trustees isn’t what you are imagining. The fallout included churning through superintendents/upper admin, millions in wasted funds, disruptions in student learning, etc. I’m not standing up for the CBE trustees, I’m just pointing out that dismissing an entire board isn’t without precedent. The current CBE board may be terrible and need replacing but appointing a new board/trustee in a division the size of CBE may create significant disruptions in classrooms(or zoom as it is happening now).

[cam_wmh]

Originally Posted by wwkayaker

The pay for those trustees isn’t what you are imagining. The fallout included churning through superintendents/upper admin, millions in wasted funds, disruptions in student learning, etc. I’m not standing up for the CBE trustees, I’m just pointing out that dismissing an entire board isn’t without precedent. The current CBE board may be terrible and need replacing but appointing a new board/trustee in a division the size of CBE may create significant disruptions in classrooms(or zoom as it is happening now).

I think we can agree, it’s management & administration that needs a serious culling in the CBE.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by #-3

I'd say there are a substantial group of people who view public education as a key cornerstone in our social contract, believing that staying educated in an information age, and having an informed electorate requires broadly available access to basic education for anyone regardless of circumstances.

I think from past rhetoric and actions people are fearful that this government does not share in holding the institution as a cornerstone of our social contract. And the way the political right has general behaved over the past ten to fifteen years has not inspired trust that the make decisions good faith.

Right or wrong people are primed to believe this government would be happy to reduce public school boards to the benefit of privet school boards, and aren't inclined to be charitable towards the actions taken in opposition to our schools.

I'm more of a wait and see montra with this one, I'm thinking they might have made the decision for the right reason, but have little faith they'll will not use the opportunity to lessen the education my children getting from the CBE, and i am hopeful I am proven wrong.

I completely agree with what you're saying. All I was trying to ask is why 3/4 of the school boards don't get hammered publicly the same way the CBE does?

Seems to me that the CBE is on an island here, so whether the long term plan of this conservative government is to defund public education (which would include edmonton and calgary) seems removed from the discussion about whether the CBE is a mess.

[GGG]

Going into the 2019/20 budget year the CBE had $9 million (or 0.7% of annual budget) in uncommitted operating reserves at a time of financial uncertainty following the election of a new government. Operating Reserves were being drawn down to supplement unfunded program delivery. Other Alberta School Districts averaged reserves of approximately 4% of annual budget at that time. While this level of operating reserves had been listed as a high risk to the CBE within annual Budget Assumption Reports prepared by Management, no actions were undertaken to ensure that reserves were re-instated to an appropriate level based on the size of the overall CBE Budget.

Reading the 1 page executive summary of that report is reasonably short but this jumped out to be as just incompetence. A.7% contingency isn’t not sufficient.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

I completely agree with what you're saying. All I was trying to ask is why 3/4 of the school boards don't get hammered publicly the same way the CBE does?

Seems to me that the CBE is on an island here, so whether the long term plan of this conservative government is to defund public education (which would include edmonton and calgary) seems removed from the discussion about whether the CBE is a mess.

Its a witch hunt!

Or....perhaps its deserved criticism.

No. Its a witch hunt. Yeah...thats more plausible. Lets get us some witches!

[afc wimbledon]

Having a go at the school board is a tried and true conservative platform most provinces, the SocialCreditliberals liked nothing better than a fight with those lefty commie teachers at the Vancouver School Board

[Yoho]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Having a go at the school board is a tried and true conservative platform most provinces, the SocialCreditliberals liked nothing better than a fight with those lefty commie teachers at the Vancouver School Board

How long should one sit and do nothing about the fiscal mismanagement? After 300 teachers are let go?

[CliffFletcher]

It's interesting to compare people's emotional intuitions of public spending to empirical data. When spending increases annually for many years, nobody notices. When the gap between spending and revenues grows wider and wider, few seem to care. But when efforts are made to narrow that gap, a narrative emerges that governments have been reducing spending for years.

But we don't have to rely on our intuitions (or anecdotes from hockey pool buddies) on these matters. The data is all publicly accessible.

From 2012/13 to 2016/17, Alberta's public education spending increased by 21.3 per cent, while enrollment increased by 10.3 per cent. Per student spending increased by 10 per cent to $14,456, third highest in Canada, and higher than B.C. ($11,879), Quebec ($11,543), or Ontario ($13,895).

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/alberta-s...says-1.4727759

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/site...hools-2020.pdf

(Yes, I know the report is from the Fraser institute. But whatever the spin, the data is real).

Which isn't to say we shouldn't spend more on education, if that's what the public wants. But if the public wants to increase education spending at even higher rates than we've been increasing spending over the last couple decades, the public has to be willing to pay higher taxes. Especially in Alberta, where the loss of energy royalties has left a gaping hole in provincial budgets.

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Having a go at the school board is a tried and true conservative platform most provinces, the SocialCreditliberals liked nothing better than a fight with those lefty commie teachers at the Vancouver School Board

Did you read the report?

If you haven't, I suggest you take the time to. This isn't a case of the UPC going after the CBE because of politics. The issues raised in the report pre-date the current provincial government and board of trustees. And are really quite concerning when you think about it.

The CBE doesn't have a governance structure that provides for financial risk analysis or long term planning, in a province and city that is reliant on a highly volatile commodity based economy for revenues. That is a massive issue for one of the largest school boards in the country that is responsible for over $1Bn in funding decisions annually.

[GGG]

If you think this is partisan David Eggen went after the CBE in 2017 because their school fees were significantly higher than the Catholic board among other things

Baired almost cut and paste his 2020 article from this one in 2017

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/calgaryh...bfba322e2/amp/

Again none of the other major boards were investigated. Consecutive governments of opposite political leanings have had concerns. Apologies for the editorially frothing Baired article as opposed to real news.

[Major Major]

Has anybody read the 2018 audit? I couldn't find it, just some reporting around it.

It is strange to me that the 2 audits seem pretty opposed to one another. The things that stick out to me are the ed centre cost, which is an old story, but seeing the numbers associated with it is as bad as imagined.

The reserve fund is troubling. Is this something that has happened year after year, or was this a one off?

The infighting is ridiculous to me. Very strange to see it spelled out in a document like that. I still don't quite understand the request for legal counsel to be present at the audit. It makes it seem like this audit was perceived as an attack. I sort of get that considering the time frame of the 2 audits and the political climate that lead to the 2nd audit, but it was obviously handled poorly.

The number of non teaching teachers needs to be regulated. Obviously there is a number since this includes principals and APs, but 22% is high. The board has elevated many specialists to help fulfill their 3 year educational development plans, but it seems every year there is a change either to the plan or to the budget, and some of these non teaching roles are just floating in no man's land, so to speak. I would say that if teachers have a leadership or coaching role, they should also be in front of kids.

The report also suggests that salaries are too high across the board. It seems like they lump teachers into that, which would be a useless comment in a report to do with a school board that doesn't control the pay of the vast majority of their employees. Maybe I misunderstood that though...

[Slava]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

I'm only halfway through so far. But this is a pretty damning indictment on the governance structure of a $1.3Bn organization.

Update:

Having finished the report, I'm really surprised that the governance structure is as loose as indicated. This is clearly an inherited problem, but an extremely concerning one, and I'm really disconcerted that such a serious gap has been allowed to exist for so long in one of the largest boards in the country.

So while it isn't something that the current trustees necessarily created, it is certainly something that they are responsible for improving upon, and at a minimum, not exacerbating. It appears that the focus of the trustees when confronted with potential issues was not to tackle them and improve, but instead to become almost tribal in their defense of the kingdom.

Lack of sophisticated financial budgeting and board infighting in the midst of an economic shock....the CBE was swimming without shorts when the tide went out.

So I read this report, and I should say didn't go through this with a fine-toothed comb. In all honesty, it wasn't quite the train wreck I had expected. There are at least a couple points where Grant Thornton notes that the CBE is in the upper echelon as far as efficiency goes. That sounds like a rather stark contrast to what I would have expected from the Education Ministers comments.

The worst piece of this is the governance portion. And yeah...it's not good, but it almost seems like they've managed to meet a reasonable bar in the other areas despite that?

And the building is just an easy target at this point. The plans were made in 2006, occupancy in 2011 and clearly it just looks like a horrible idea in hindsight. I was opposed to that deal back in 2010, but let's be fair...2014 and beyond haven't exactly helped make the lease payment look favourable! It's great to say "you should just sublet some space and reduce costs", but I don't know how realistic that is these days. People have probably noticed that there are a few vacancies in downtown Calgary these days.

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by Slava

So I read this report, and I should say didn't go through this with a fine-toothed comb. In all honesty, it wasn't quite the train wreck I had expected. There are at least a couple points where Grant Thornton notes that the CBE is in the upper echelon as far as efficiency goes. That sounds like a rather stark contrast to what I would have expected from the Education Ministers comments.

The worst piece of this is the governance portion. And yeah...it's not good, but it almost seems like they've managed to meet a reasonable bar in the other areas despite that?

And the building is just an easy target at this point. The plans were made in 2006, occupancy in 2011 and clearly it just looks like a horrible idea in hindsight. I was opposed to that deal back in 2010, but let's be fair...2014 and beyond haven't exactly helped make the lease payment look favourable! It's great to say "you should just sublet some space and reduce costs", but I don't know how realistic that is these days. People have probably noticed that there are a few vacancies in downtown Calgary these days.

The CBE scored well in procurement and maintenance, to their credit. I would suggest that is indicative of good work done by certain departments, and not necessarily reflective of leadership from the Trustee level.

The gap in governance led directly to the reserve fund of 0.7%, which then led to 300 layoffs, 300 re-hiring, and dipping into funds set aside for maintenance purposes (one of the two areas they are actually competent at). The emotional roller coaster on employees who one week are told they have a job, and then they don't, and then they have it back again.....there were real, human, consequences to the CBE's mismanagement.

To me that says financial ineptitude, a lack of planning, and a desire to score political points by painting the UPC as the bad guys. When in comparison, the other boards in the province were not caught unawares to the same extent that the CBE was.

The lack of governance and controls also led to the building decision being allowed to happen in the first place. This has been a problem for a really long time. And yes, it is easy to tell them to sublet space. But the fact that they only contemplated a binary option (buy or sell) is indicative again of the weak financial governance in place.

[malcolmk14]

Originally Posted by Major Major

The number of non teaching teachers needs to be regulated. Obviously there is a number since this includes principals and APs, but 22% is high. The board has elevated many specialists to help fulfill their 3 year educational development plans, but it seems every year there is a change either to the plan or to the budget, and some of these non teaching roles are just floating in no man's land, so to speak. I would say that if teachers have a leadership or coaching role, they should also be in front of kids.

The 22% number is not accurate. It refers to the number of teachers who have administrative allowances, most of whom have classrooms.

90% of certificated staff in the CBE have classrooms, 8% are Principals or AP's, some of whom also have classrooms (smaller schools).

The CBE is sending 70 teachers from downtown back into classrooms in September 2020.