Frustrated parents at New Westminster Secondary School voted unanimously in favour of a motion of non-confidence in the district's ability to manage its finances in response to an almost $2.8-million "surprise" deficit from last year.
The school's parent advisory council executive recommended the motion to the roughly 15 parents that turned up at last Thursday's meeting.
Mary Ann McKenzie, chair of the school's advisory council, took issue with the fact that the shortfall was missed until after the board passed what was presented as a balanced budget with a small surplus.
"In my business . I spend a lot of time forecasting based on what I'm seeing coming up," she said. "I know where every dollar is going six months from now, so there will be no surprises. If I showed up with a surprise of that nature, I wouldn't have a job very long."
Along with the mistaken forecasts, there seems to be a lack of accountability, she said.
The district hired consultant Joan Axford to review the books, but McKenzie questions the point of paying for another consultant - the third one in 11 years to come in and review a district deficit.
The last one cost the district $40,000, and the district expects to pay Axford $15,000.
"If it had been the first deficit, yes, let's pay for the consultant; the second deficit, OK, let's pay for the consultant," she said. "The third in 11 years, for the decision to bring in yet another consultant to fix it.
"It isn't computing. It's like the old adage, you do the same thing each time, expecting different results."
McKenzie believes the best way to handle the deficit issue is to bring in the auditor-general to "dig out whatever systematic problems are causing surprise deficits."
"I would prefer for someone to really get in there with teeth. For the auditor general to get in there with teeth and to do a much deeper, longer dive into what systematically is causing a problem that a deficit of that nature would come out of the blue," she said.
Overall, McKenzie said she is pleased with the quality of education in the district, but fears that routine deficits will affect it.
She also said the parent council isn't trying to get rid of the board.
Education Minister Don McRae issued a statement stating he believes the board will find a solution, praising the hiring of Axford.
"Earlier this month, the New Westminster district did retain the services of financial consultant Joan Axford to assist with a review of its operating budget and development of its deficit recovery strategy. As part of her work, she has been asked to develop a stakeholder consultation process for the district," he said in the statement. "I'm confident that the New West board of education will develop a sound plan to address the situation."
Board of education chair James Janzen said it is "understandable" that parents are disappointed and angry.
"That's why we hired Joan Axford to look into it for us," he said. "We'll carry on and get this solved."
Board vice-chair Michael Ewen said he wouldn't call the high school parents' vote a "non-confidence" motion after reading McKenzie's comments in other newspapers.
"When I saw her clarification in one of the papers, she clarified that she wasn't calling on the board to be fired," he said. "She wasn't calling on anything to happen to the board."
As for the deficit, he agreed with Janzen the best approach is via the consultant.
"We think we've got it. The ministry thinks we've got it," he said. "We've brought somebody in to help us make sure we know exactly what the problem is.
"I understand the frustration of the parents. I'm frustrated too," he said. "At the end of this month when we get the report back, then we'll get that public as quickly as we possibly can with the maximum amount of material we can get public, and we'll move forward on this."
Trustee MaryAnn Mortensen told The Record she believes the consultants report will be presented to the board at its Nov. 27 meeting, given that it's the last meeting of the month.
"I would assume something would be coming then," she said. "It's from there that the board will have to decide next steps and whether or not the consultant's report meets the criteria for the examination of the current deficit and our practices and management of controls, monitoring, tracking and reporting."
The F.W. Howay parent advisory council also endorsed a non-confidence motion on Monday night.
