Money is tight and trustees know it.
New Westminster’s school district released its annual Statement of Financial Information and trustee expenses are down nearly $6,000 from last year.
According to the report, the seven New Westminster trustees claimed a total of $4,055 in expenses during the 2013 fiscal year. This is down more than $6,000 from 2012 when the board spent a total of $10,542.51.
Former board chair Michael Ewen topped the list of expenses claiming $3,168, while former vice-chair Jonina Campbell came in second, claiming nearly $700 in expenses in 2013.
Ewen’s expenses included several trips to Victoria to meet with staff at the ministry of education, as well as a trip to Kelowna for the B.C. School Trustees Association’s annual general meeting.
“Normally we’d have four or five trustees go. So the board voted to have just one member go and I got the honour of taking two days off work unpaid to go to (the meeting),” Ewen said.
Despite the significant drop in expenses for trustees, which will benefit the district’s tight budget for the upcoming year, not all trustees feel the decrease is a good thing.
“We don’t have trustees, generally now, going to conferences, learning about how other trustees are doing business and I think that’s unfortunate. In the long term I think that’s a problem because you don’t get the breadth of understanding about how other districts work,” Ewen said.
Without trustees taking an active interest in the workings of school districts outside their own, Ewen worries New Westminster will suffer in the long run.
“We expect trustees to be making judgments about education plans but without talking to people, talking to experts,” he said. “I think it’s useful for trustees to get out and talk with experts and see conferences to understand education programs, not just around the province, but around the world.”
For now, however, the trend is expected to continue as secretary-treasurer Al Balanuik reminded trustees the district still has a long way to go before it pays back the provincial government the nearly $5 million it owes.
