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Where Will Vancouver School Board Find Its Voice Now?

Cutting top communicators could stifle public education debate says former board public relations manager.

Katie Hyslop 14 Apr 2011TheTyee.ca

Katie Hyslop reports on education for the Tyee Solutions Society, and is a freelance reporter for a number of other outlets including The Tyee. To republish this piece, please contact Michelle Hoar here.

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VSB headquarters: eight managers cut April 8.

Saddled with an $8.4 million budget shortfall, the Vancouver School District laid off eight district managers last week to help lighten the load, including communications manager and communications specialist. But despite plans to consolidate communications into other jobs, a former communications manager fears the Board won't be able to play the same key role in the public education debate without those positions.

The layoffs came one week before the board's preliminary budget proposals were released on April 12, suggesting the district cut 55 more jobs, including 19 FTE teachers, 3 FTE administrators, and a seven per cent reduction in managerial staff -- including the eight managers laid off on April 8.

In addition to communications, the district lost their business analyst, executive administrative assistant, purchasing coordinator, manager of facilities, coordinator of budget and finance and supervisor of information technology.

"It's going to be very difficult, there's no question. This is something that's been rippling right through our organization with a series of years of reductions. This particular round of layoffs really comes in anticipating as we're trying to grapple with yet another budget shortfall and do what we can," school board chair Patti Bacchus told The Tyee, adding service levels for these roles won't be the same.

From inside scoop to incommunicado

This marks the first time in over 50 years the district will be without a communications manager, a position that was part of senior management until the mid-1990s when it was downgraded for budgetary reasons. It's a position Chuck Gosbee held for 20 years, and he says the downgrading of authority affects the quality of work a communications person can do.

"If you’re on senior management [you] have instant access to the superintendent of schools and could speak on behalf of the board," says Gosbee, who served as communications manager for the board from 1975 until 1995.

"If you don't have that authority -- anybody in the position now, and the most recent person -- would be faced with a situation where you can't say a word without checking and looking over your shoulder to make sure you know what's going on and you've checked things out."

There was no shortage of education controversies to address during Gosbee's time, not only budget shortfalls, including an $8 million shortfall in the 1980s that saw his department cut in half, but also tragedies such as the accidental drowning of students on a canoe trip in Howe Sound and the murder of a teacher. It isn't the type of job Gosbee feels can be easily consolidated.

"I hate to see the position downgraded or moved into another section where somebody does it off the corner of their desk -- God help the person who tries, because the last five years I was on the job I was in crisis mode most of the time; it was crisis management, one crisis after another," says Gosbee.

"If you didn't have your act together and tell the truth and tell it often and tell it well and get the reporters into the schools and get them into the classrooms to find out what's really going on in education."

Blow to public education advocacy

Communications directors aren't just needed for moments of crisis, however. Public education advocates often find themselves at odds with a public who point the finger at teachers for bad grades or politicians who want to introduce merit-based pay.

"There's tremendous confusion about what our public schools are doing today; there's an advance towards private education and even home schooling, and I think that the public schools are getting a terribly bad rap from the Fraser Institute all the way through the business world," says Gosbee.

"I think that it has to be met with a very strong, carefully planned and programmed communications program, not just with the news media but a proactive program to get the message out and get it in front of people all the time."

Not precedent setting, says Langley trustee

The VSB is not the only district forced to make cuts this year, although the BC School Trustees Association says laying off staff is not the road every board is choosing to go.

The Langley School District begins their first of four payments of $3.375 million this year to pay off the $13.5 million of debt they found themselves in last year thanks to budget mismanagement. But trustee Stacey Cody says the board isn't looking to follow in Vancouver's footsteps to reduce their deficit.

"We can only narrow things down so much, and then you have to have a good enough team in place to keep everything running," says Cody, adding she was surprised by the Vancouver lay offs.

"I know that we're probably going to have to make more structural changes next year, but we have four years to pay off our deficit and if we could do it sooner, it would be a lot better, but at the same time we don't want to be down to bare bones and not be able to run the district in an efficient manner that's good for the kids."

Funding still divides VSB, government

Education Minister George Abbott visited the Vancouver School District the day after the lay offs were announced. Bacchus told The Tyee before the meeting that funding would be the first topic of discussion on the agenda.

"As difficult as these eight layoffs were today, in the context of what's happened in this district, of what we've seen in schools, of what we've seen even in our district staff, there's a continuation of that same theme, and it is increasingly difficult to meet the needs of our students and our communities. And it's felt in many ways, no question, throughout the district," she says.

Abbott maintains that school district funding is the highest it's ever been, with per-pupil funding at $8,341 -- $159 higher than last year -- in addition to the return of the Annual Facilities Grants of $110 million and an HST rebate of $32 million.

"Boards of education, like all levels of government, face cost pressures as our economy continues to recover from the recent downturn. However, school districts are in a much better position as a result of Budget 2011," he said in an emailed statement to The Tyee.  [Tyee]

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