The B.C. government will consider reducing the number of school districts and will try to encourage more sharing of resources among districts as a means to save on administrative costs.
In a conference call Tuesday, Education Minister George Abbott admitted he's held preliminary discussions with his staff on the topic of amalgamating some of the province's 60 school boards.
"I do think there is some potential for amalgamation and some potential for administrative savings, whether it's actual amalgamation or sharing superintendents or secretary-treasurers," said Abbott .
"I'm a big fan of school districts and I do think the school district system we have in the province has generated a lot of innovation and a lot of good educational practice. The question then is 60 the right number of school districts, and I suspect the answer to that is no. There are districts of a size and a configuration that would lend themselves to co-operation or amalgamation with other districts."
This year, New Brunswick halved the number of its school districts from 14 to seven, a cost-cutting measure that eliminated between 75 and 100 administrative positions, which is expected to save the province $5 million annually.
Abbott said he will revisit the topic to try to find ways to channel more funding into educational programs. Given the strained climate of contract negotiations with teachers that began the school year and led to a four-day strike last spring and a forced contract settlement, he said he was reluctant to publicly raise the amalgamation possibility.
"At a time of brand new challenges in labour relations and also a very dynamic and positive time in terms of renewing the education system, I wasn't going to burn a lot of political capital on trying to push amalgamation of districts," said Abbott.
"We've got districts of over 70,000 [students] in Surrey and we have a district in Stikine that I think is under 100 [students], which is a tough one because it's so big and so rural, but there are districts where that discussion might constructively be held. There's a lot of work to be done yet."
Abbott expects negotiations between the B.C. Teachers Federation and the BC Public School Employers' Association will resume in March or April. The current two-year deal signed in June will expire on June 30, 2013.
Since 1994, when the Public Sector Labour Relations Act established a provincial bargaining structure and the BCTF became the bargaining agent for teachers, only one contract (in 2006) has been negotiated without government intervention.
"There is certainly a possibility of a repetition of the challenges of the past year and previous rounds of negotiation and we do need to take a look how we can take a step forward on this," Abbott said. "One of the things we need to think about in the months ahead is whether we need to something different in terms of labour negotiation. There has been thoughtful reports tendered to government by Don Wright and Vince Ready and probably others, and those need to be dusted off. There are some things we can learn from our experience of the last few months. How was it we went on for a year without any changes in the position of the parties, only to reach an agreement at the last moment under the mediation of Dr. [Charles] Jago."
Abbott, the longtime Liberal MLA for Shuswap, would not reveal whether he plans to stand for re-election in the May provincial vote.
