Six superintendents in six years means something wrong is going on at SD57. Now that former superintendent Anita Richardson has filed a lawsuit against both the existing school trustees as well as former Trustees Trent Derrick and Shuirose Valimohamed, the public has heard allegations contradicting the ones the resigning trustees made, so hopefully truth will be revealed in the court case, as the public deserves to know.
The problem with all this drama is the direct impact it has on the classroom. While the adults are fighting like kindergartners, the needs of kindergartners to Grade 12s are being ignored. The problem with adults fighting is they are the ones in charge and rather than spending their time on providing top-notch education, it appears much time (which is money) is spent on office politics.
How much money?
I spent some time poking around a few months ago and found a few interesting things.
Oddly, SD57 does not post their SOFI (Statement Of Financial Information) reports on their website, despite being required to do so. Other districts manage this: SD70 Tofino, SD33 Chilliwack, SD85 North Van are just a few I checked. Even the City of Prince George manages to do this.
I finally found the 2019/2020 SD57 SOFI report on the Ministry of Education website. In that report I found that former Superintendent Marilyn Marquis-Forster was paid $200,977.50 in the school year FOLLOWING her resignation on May 14, 2019. What was the money for? It couldn’t have been a payout, because she resigned. Perhaps I am missing something?
When the lawsuit came out, I found the 2020/2021 SOFI report on the Ministry website as well (which is still not on the district website) It shows that Anita Richardson was paid $202,405.44 in salary and $10,893.89 in expenses for the 2020/2021 school year, when she went on leave in January 2021. This is also the year Cindy Heitman, the current superintendent, was paid $200,376.41 salary and $9,295.66 in expenses. Paying two people to do the same job adds up! The SOFI for 2021/2022 isn’t out yet. Then there are over 40 administrators earning over $130,000 each year, which totals to over $5 million.
If everything is going well, and graduation rates were increasing, we could say this is money well spent. But education in the district is in a dismal state. The responsibility lies with the trustees (who earn roughly 10 per cent of what the superintendent and secretary-treasurer pull in each year.) They are responsible for ensuring the schools are well-managed by the superintendent. This relationship has to be healthy in order to be effective. This brings us back to the revolving door in the superintendent’s office.
How much time is taken when the relationship between the board and the senior administration isn’t healthy?
Perhaps a clue to the revolving superintendent door can be found in the number of in-camera meetings, the meetings that deal with personnel issues.
There is one scheduled in-camera meeting each month to discuss personnel issues, similar to other districts. However, unlike other districts, SD57 has many, many in-camera meetings. Not just a few extra either. From April 2020 to December 2020 there were an additional 25 special in-camera meetings. In 2021 there were an additional 35 special in-camera meetings. In January alone of this year, before the newly elected trustees were sworn in, there were seven special in-camera meetings.
The board of trustees only ever has one employee, the superintendent, who they search for and hire to manage the district, and included in that is managing personnel. What is going on that so many in-camera meetings are required? With this lawsuit, it appears that much was going on. The problem is whatever was going on did not improve outcomes for our students. There is much to be discovered and much to be sorted out, and hopefully the public will learn more as the weeks go by.
There is an election coming in the fall, and it will be up to the voters of the district to choose someone who is actually willing to challenge the status quo in our district and improve the education our children receive.
