Morale at an all-time low in Cariboo-Chilcotin School District: report

The report also found that “finance processes do not have adequate input from stakeholders and that communication about the budget and finance needs to be improved in order to build trust and gain respect from the field.”

Turner found the culture of the district “not positive.”

“It will take time to address this issue, through trust building, intentional actions, and focused attention on improving the culture. A shared plan to work toward improving the culture in the district will be required to keep a sustained focus on this issue.”

As a result of these problems, Turner made 12 recommendations, which included “calling for a governance and policy review to clarify and delineate the operational and governance roles and responsibilities of the board and the staff.”

Other recommendations included assessing the work of the superintendent and secretary-treasurer, and developing a revised budget process that thoroughly engages the community. Turner also recommended the district engage an expert in culture building and restorative relationship building.

Murray Helmer, president of the CCTA called the report “very comprehensive.”

“It pinpoints a lot of the areas that we have found to be troublesome for the last year-and-a-half,” he said. “And I think it’s a good place to start rebuilding from because I think outside eyes have seen a lot of the issues that we’ve been trying to communicate for so long.”

As for what stood out most in the report, he identified the work culture, which he noted has been “so dysfunctional.”

Helmer said the union decided to reaffirm its non-confidence motion in SD27 because the district refused to make Turner’s report public even though the district has had the report in its hands since the end of March.

“I don’t know where we go from here but at least we’ve got this (report) to rely on to pinpoint areas where we really need effective change.”

In a letter to Board Chair Tanya Guenther, Education Minister Rob Fleming noted he was concerned that the culture of the district has “deteriorated the focus on student learning.”

“This is perhaps borne out in the modest level of student success seen in the achievement data for School District No. 27,” he wrote.

In his letter, Fleming gave SD27 until May 31, 2018 to review and provide him with actions the district plans in response to the recommendations.

In a teleconference today, School District 27 finally responded to the document with a response report it called “An Inside Look at School District No. 27.”

In it, SD27 Secretary Treasurer Kevin Futcher defended the district against claims of “financial mismanagement” made by the CCTA.

For example, he said the district was fully audited by the Ministry of Finance last year and files regular budget and management reports to the ministry “as required by law.”

In addition to that, he said the district provides the board with regular budget update reports each September and noted the district is confident its “financial management practices are on par with other districts in the province.”

As for some of the recommendations made in Turner’s report, Superintendent of Schools Mark Wintjes said “we probably could have identified many of those ourselves.”

“So, to have an external person identify them reaffirms that yes, we do need to build on our culture, and yes, we do need to build that communications piece.”

He added however that some of the recommendations, like the one calling for a performance review of the superintendent, is something that is “already embedded” in district policy.

As for charges by Helmer that the work culture is “dysfunctional,” Wintjes said that if that’s something Helmer sees, then it’s something the district “needs to move on” not in a “top-down manner” but collectively with the input of all education stakeholders.

by Greg Fry

Morale at an all-time low in Cariboo-Chilcotin School District: report

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