School District 43's financial troubles have prompted calls for a forensic audit and board chair Melissa Hyndes said she's open to the idea.
Hyndes, who issued a public apology Tuesday about the district's money woes, told The Tri-City News a forensic audit may help to restore the public's confidence.
"I think we all [trustees] have the appetite to understand what transpired," Hyndes said, although she said the district has a good understanding of the mistakes it made.
But the Port Moody trustee said it will be up to the board to make the decision about an audit and the issue hasn't yet been brought up.
The request for a formal audit, made by the Coquitlam Teachers' Association president Teresa Grandinetti, comes as the full extent of the district's mistakes is being revealed.
In response to the CTA's request for more information, the district revealed that $3 million in salaries was paid to 77 teachers and support staff, including people who work with at-risk and vulnerable teens and special needs children, even though the district didn't have the money and the positions were not included in its budget.
"Our accounting practices were not as good as they should have been," superintendent Tom Grant said Tuesday, acknowledging that not only were the positions not accounted for in the budget but they were hired because the district expected to have a surplus last year when in fact "we should have cut them out from last year."
TOO MANY TEACHERS
The list of teachers SD43 hired but didn't have money for includes the following (full-time equivalent) positions:
19.3 elementary teachers;
3.31 middle teachers;
4 international education teachers;
1 CABE (Coquitlam Alternative Basic Education) teacher;
1.91 continuing education and other alternative program teachers;
1.4 Aboriginal education teachers;
2.5 staff development teachers;
14.75 education assistants;
and 7.93 support staff.
This was one of the mistakes that led to the district accumulating a deficit this year that was first announced as $7.5 million January but was last week revealed to be $13 million without $5 million in cuts that are now being made. Another problem that led to the deficit, and that will have to be dealt with in next year's budget, was a miscalculation in anticipated enrolment figures.
MORE OVERSIGHT NEEDED
Enrolment projections based on trends and forecasts that are usually spot on led the district to conclude it would have an extra 222 students ho never arrived; 97 left the district and 125 never materialized. This equates to $1.5 million in lost funding.
According to assistant superintendent Carey Chute, the district faces challenges in predicting enrolment because demographics are changing and the economy is affecting build-out in Burke Mountain and other areas of population growth. As well, yield rates - the number of students per new home - is changing because more kids are being raised in townhouses, and secondary suites in new homes.
Burke Mountain is a particular challenge, Chute said, because families are moving to the area - many with kids under the age of four - instead of more varied age spreads as in years past.
"It's something we don't have a complete handle on," Chute said.
As well, Grant noted, students who take more than eight courses cause complications for the system because numbers can add up to a full-time student, making predicting enrolment at the secondary level more complicated.
Still, he acknowledged that a number of the problems were mistakes the district leadership team made.
"We didn't apply the control and oversight we should have."
