Tuesday's announcement that the Steveston secondary school site had finally been sold for just over $41 million will act like a bargaining chip for the establishment of some new, local schools.
That's according to Richmond Board of Education chair Donna Sargent who said she was "ecstatic" the sale to Polygon Pacific Homes Limited had finally been completed six years after the site on No. 2 Road had been closed and a replacement school - Steveston-London - had taken its place in 2007.
Sargent said the district is limited to using the proceeds of the sale - $41,125,000 for the 13-acre parcel, of which eight acres were sold and five acres were allocated to the city for park use - strictly for capital projects.
Two items topping the district's five-year capital plan that was just submitted to the Ministry of Education include new elementary schools for the city centre and Hamilton area on the eastern end of Lulu Island.
Densification of the city's core and an expected doubling of enrolment in Hamilton are driving the need for new schools.
Sargent said that while the province is still responsible for providing funding for new schools, there is an increasing trend for districts to "bring something to the table" when discussions start.
"There seems to be a real shift," Sargent said, adding, "We'll still be advocating for the ministry to provide for the facility that we need."
The Steveston school sale does represent a lot of money, "but it will not pay for all the needs that we have," Sargent said.
"It's very exciting that we could put together the agreement. Now we have funds for the school district."
But more than just the infusion of funds is what the sale means for the community.
"It was a piece of land that people either walked or drove by every day, and it had become so dilapidated," Sargent said. "That's not really the memory of what happened in that school for 50 years."
Trustees primed to meet Education Minister Soccer players try and get a favourable result over the course of a 90-minute match.
And that's exactly how long Richmond's school trustees will be given to score some points with B.C.'s Minister of Education when he comes to town Friday to meet them face to face as part of his province-wide sweep of school districts.
The opportunity is to have Peter Fassbender come away with an understanding of the challenges to deliver education under the constraints of the ministry's budget, said local school board chair Donna Sargent, adding there are three main points trustees want to stress.
"Basically, it's keeping education a priority, as far as funding, by ensuring public education receives increased, stable and consistent funding, re-instating a capital plan for facilities, and providing support for new initiatives in education," Sargent said.
Another topic on the agenda is co-governance, which is topical given the province's recently negotiated agreement with unionized, non-teaching and support staff for a 3.5 per cent wage increase over two years.
The agreement, arrived at without the input of trustees through the B.C. Public School Employers' Association, downloaded the cost on school districts across B.C. under the province's cooperative gains mandate, rather than being funded by the government.
That meant with no new funding, savings in the district have to be found to fund the raise.
In Richmond that is expected to cost $703,992 in the first year of the agreement and will be covered by dipping into the district's modest $6.1 million operating surplus.
But job cuts are expected to fund the $1.34 million needed in year two.
Faced with that imposed settlement, Sargent said she and her fellow trustees want to remind Fassbender that the ministry and BCSTA (British Columbia School Trustees Association) had previously signed a protocol agreement to be co-governors of the public education system.
"We just want to bring that forward again and talk about what co-governance means," Sargent said, adding that as part of the partnership longterm planning should be at the forefront to avoid situations where school districts that are not represented at the negotiating table are then required to fund agreements they have no say in.
Sargent added there is also a need for more consultation and feedback.
"We want two-way communication rather than being told, 'here's the information, this is what will be happening.'" Sargent also called for trustee groups around B.C. to be present at the bargaining table for future negotiations.
"As really the only employer of these employees, we need to be bargaining with them. So, it's not just a matter of consulting with us, we are part of it."
