Heavy cost of education consultants in Prince Rupert

General Forums Prince Rupert Forum
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I pay more than my share of every form of taxes (income tax, GST/PST, property tax, etc.)  In fact Rupert property taxes are the highest in the province.

When I see public money being wasted it disgusts me.

It is widely accepted that our local public schools are performing far below schools in other parts of the province.  Despite the howls of protests by special interest groups, the Fraser Institute statistics do not lie and are the only available yardstick we have to assess school performance. 

We need to spend our tax money to educate our children, not to pay consultants who produce reports, recommendations etc at $800.00 per day.  I will offer my report and recommendation for free:  teach our kids to read, write, and do math.  Hire capable teachers to do it.  Impose order in the schools and give our kids a safe place to learn.  Weed out incompetent teachers and encourage them to find another profession.  There, I have just saved the school district tens of thousands  of dollars on the next set of consultants’ reports. 

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[quote=“BTravenn”]
When the same request was later made to the current Secretary-Treasurer he provided … to his credit … a meaningful rather than disingenuous response. That’s my read of these events …  [/quote]

It’s my understanding that the request was initially rejected by the current Secretary-Treasurer, and that no information was provided.  The information was provided only when the board chair intervened.

That explains why it took 2 and a half months to reply, and why Mr. McIntyre uses the line “On the instructions of the Chair of the Board of Education…”

That’s my third-hand information, anyway.  If anybody can clarify it, please do.

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… that’s interesting … but may reflect that the board chair is legally responsible for how FOIs are handled, regardless of who processes the paper flow. I know that in the provincial govt responsibility is delegated to civil servants, but I’m not sure that local bodies like school boards have those powers.

We needn’t survey the globe … look at the federal Public Service Commission and the BC Public Service Agency as examples of how recruitment processes are intended to minimize nepotism … jobs are posted, there are formal screening criteria, competitive interviews, scoring, appeal procedures if candidates are dissatisfied etc …

Here in contrast arrangements seem to have been designed so that recruitment is neither open nor competitive. At considerable expense a consultant is hired … by what selection process who knows? … Board chair Last explains the HR philosophy:

“… but I would also say who would best know (Hauptman’s) working ability, her experience and her expertise than someone who has worked with her?”

This reminds me of when the Regional District hired a replacement for John Holland when he left. Mayor Mussallem said they wanted a replacement CAO who is “known to the board”.

There are other ways of recruiting people … where the objective is to make as arms length a decision as possible.

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        Although an’ intent to minimize nepotism’ is attempted by a variety of screenings, interviews and the like, one has to look no further than Ridley Island ( a federal entity ) to see how successful these processes have faired.

      To take this one step further, one could say that due to a moderate amount of nepotism, a  number of trades people at RTI have moved back to town having been displaced due to the mill closure.

      Having responded in this manner, I am, by no means, endorsing or promoting the way this hiring at the school district took place. I would have been less bothered if this incident happened at a provincial or federal political level ( where’ who you know’ hiring is more prevelant) rather than at School District 52.

      The last sentence of your post sums it up.

     

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Here’s what I wrote last spring in the thread about Eric Mercer:

“I recently talked to somebody who sat on the selection committee for the new superintendent.  Interestingly, Gary Doi’s first and only presented Lynn Hauptman’s resume for consideration.  He told them that in his opinion she was the right person for the job and and if the committee didn’t share his opinion he would present them with the remaining applicants. The committee never found out who else applied for the position”

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RTI is federal but that doesn’t make their employees civil servants who are recruited through the Public Service Commission … what I am referring to is how other government bodies go about recruiting civil servants … Crown corporations like RTI are a different story … likewise appointments to federal and provincial boards, which can be avowedly political.

The playing field is probably never completely level … eg people who already work in government seem to have an advantage over external applicants because they know the ropes … but I would not describe recruitment of federal and provincial civil servants as nepotistic … the process is a lot more rigorous than how things seem to work when managers are hired in the local public sector.

Interesting … I’ve never heard of a competition for a job in the federal or provincial civil services (other than temporary or auxiliary) where the panel did not short list and interview at least two candidates.

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Interesting piece from yesterday’s Penticton Herald:

Penticton Herald, Tue Mar 16 2010
Section: Opinion
Byline: James Miller
Source: Penticton Herald

If there’s ever been a textbook example of why school boards should be handed over to individual municipalities, or even the provincial government, one needs to look at the latest episode in Prince Rupert with School District 52.

At a time when three elementary schools are studied for possible closure in Prince Rupert, their board paid an acting superintendent $800 per day for his services and another consultant $23,000 to help find a replacement for a superintendent who was abruptly replaced (at a cost of $144,802 for the remainder of his contract).

The two consultants are familiar to Herald readers – Dave Stigant and Gary Doi, both who were previously employed here by School District 67.

The fee paid to Doi’s consulting firm has drawn criticism from the various unions in Prince Rupert because the individual he hired previously worked with him with School District 67.

This, by the way, was done while Doi was still employed as an acting superintendent in Penticton. Larry Little, former chair of School District 67, said he doesn’t have a problem with Doi doing this side job because he did not neglect his duties to this district during that time. Little said that Doi is “second to none” and holds the distinction of being the most respected individual in education in B.C…

While Stigant and Doi have done absolutely nothing wrong and kudos to them for being asked to share their expertise, the school board in Prince Rupert needs to examine their commitment to the taxpayers.

Was this group of trustees incapable of conducting a search for a superintendent without having to pay for it? Was this not one of the tasks the public elected them for? Did they really need to pay someone $300 per hour? It’s time for taxpayers to stand up to this kind of nonsense. Taxpayers in Prince Rupert should be outraged. Others around the province need to write their MLAs and say, “we’ve had enough”.

At a time when many of our seniors are eating in soup kitchens, homes are being lost and capable young people are unable to find suitable employment, this is an abomination.

Where is the B.C. School Teachers Association in all of this? A school board meeting doesn’t go by where there isn’t at least one piece of correspondence from another board complaining bitterly about cuts to education. Yet the B.C. School Trustees Association loses all credibility when it doesn’t speak up against these kinds of expenses. Anyone who dares speaks up, such as a handful of media in Vancouver and Penticton, they’re painted as being negative or incapable of seeing the entire picture.

Memo to Education Minister Dr. Margaret MacDiarmid: please do the children of British Columbia a service and step in and put an end to this kind of nonsense from ever happening again. We do not need high-paid consultants. There is enough administration.

That’s why we elect school boards.

We need tax money helping our Special Needs children, slow learners, exceptional students, athletes, artistic children, children with behaviour problems, kids who are being bullied, ones who can’t read and those who don’t get a decent breakfast before they leave the home in the morning.

You owe this Dr. MacDiarmid to our children. Please keep money for education directly in the classroom.

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… interesting to see SD52 cited elsewhere in the province as an example of weak board governance and over-reliance on high paid consultants. I don’t accept the premise, though, or think that it logically follows, that “school boards should be handed over to individual municipalities” … that’s another discussion entirely. 

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Yes, because Prince Rupert’s municipal governance is such a shining example…

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While we will huff and puff here on HTMF,  I don’t see any will on the part of our elected officials to deal with the sorry state of affairs that our community finances are in. This applies to both the City Council, the School District and the Regional District.

Nepotism, closed door politics and the use of consultants to perform functions that boards or management should be doing is a fact of life in Prince Rupert life. While taxpayers may be outraged, they are reluctant to speak out publicly and when they do, they are challenged to boxing matches with the Mayor.

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… of unorthodox recruitment practices and use of consultants against a backdrop of budgetary restraint.

Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional District perhaps does not get as much attention as it should … considering that Rupert seems to generate quite a bit of its tax revenue and gets back … I have no idea what.

Rather than hiring a new CAO to replace John Holland they have an A/CAO on contract, an Asst CAO and have recently hired a Treasurer … the latter two being new positions. Apparently the A/CAO has some training functions … interesting parallel since the SD52 Chair Last said that Mr Stigant’s role included helping the assistant superintendent and director of instruction develop their skills …

Meanwhile the Regional District seems to be struggling to keep onside with the Local Government Act … as is recently noted in A Town Called Podunk:

“A review of the SQCRD budget proposals is outlined, with the first talking point the prospective budget deficit that would be illegal  under the Local Government Act, a problem that the members of Regional District will have to try and balance while still attempting to provide good governance for the region.”

I don’t think transferring education to municipal government is that good an idea, at least here.
 

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[quote=“Speakuppr”]

Err.  Kicks in the ass, not boxing.[/quote]

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Oh I don’t know it offers up the opportunity to revisit some names of the past, Tannalee Hesse for Superintendent perhaps!

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I wasn’t going to go there but … yes … another example of local government entering into consulting arrangements that are a bit hard to fathom, rather than putting a help wanted ad in the Sun, G&M and the local newspaper of record … or engaging the services of a consultant who actually specializes in municipal recruitment.

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Interesting you should mention Ms Hesse, she is now in Terrace Acting Administrator for the Hospital… if wrong, I stand to be corrected.  :smile: