Vancouver school board to fight funding cuts

As students head back to class this week, school trustees in Vancouver have called an emergency meeting for Wednesday to demand the B.C. government restore the district's funding grants.

Vancouver was supposed to receive a $10.6-million annual facility grant to cover programs ranging from fire extinguisher testing and basic maintenance to asbestos abatement. But the grants for all B.C. school districts were shelved in the provincial budget update last Tuesday as the government struggles to rein in a $2.8-billion deficit.

Vancouver School Board trustee Allan Wong predicts students will be the losers if operating funds must be used to maintain schools.

Wong, who also chairs the board's facilities and planning committee, said the unexpected cut means the board will miss opportunities such as cost-effective upgrading of aging and inefficient mechanical and electrical systems during major seismic upgrades.

"It's penny wise pound foolish not to do that kind of upgrading when you have the walls out and the work exposed," Wong said last week when the grants were cancelled. "Where it is sensible to include cost-saving changes while completing seismic upgrades, we are now forced to leave in outdated and energy-inefficient equipment leaving the taxpayers with a much larger bill down the road."