Too much being spent on wages and benefits in school district
Wages and benefits make up the highest costs of the B.C. school budgets. In our Cowichan Valley school district, wages and benefits amount to 78.6 per cent of the total budget. This is the trend in all B.C. school districts. Makes one wonder if our education system is just there to keep people employed, all paid for by the taxpayers.
The 2020/21 budget for the Cowichan Valley school district for wages and benefits is $80,401,832 with 7,730 students. The 2020/21 budget for the Mission school district for wages and benefits is $61,300,898, with 7,086 students. The 2020/21 budget for the Vernon school district for wages and benefits is $76,451,580 with 8,200 students. The 2020/21 budget for the Comox school district for wages and benefits is $76.9348,218 with 8,600 students.
Why should the Cowichan Valley school district have $19,100,934 more in wages and benefits with only 644 more students than the Mission school district?
Why should the Cowichan Valley school district have over $4 million more in wages and benefits with 470 fewer students than Vernon school district, and 870 fewer students than the Comox school district?
Remember these are taxpayer dollars. The Cowichan Valley school district audited financial statements for 2019/20 were prepared by Bakertilly, Chartered Accountants, out of Victoria, B.C. The accountants would normally travel back and forth each day from Victoria to Duncan, but at times would spend the night in Duncan at one of our local accomodation outlets. These added expenses would be added in to the total bill for the financial statement preparation. Why not have one of our local Chartered Accountants offices prepare the financial statements? I do not believe the difference in audit quotations are that much lower in cost from out of town auditors in comparison to our local accounting offices.
Bakertilly prepared the 2019/20 financial statements showing 2019 Budget, 2019 Actual, and 2018 Actual for comparison purposes.
This is not sufficient comparisons in relation to the above examples of paid wages and benefits.
The auditors should do comparisons with various school districts to compare why there is so much discrepancy in costs. An example is comparing Mission school district with the Cowichan Valley school district in the above mentioned figures, proves tax dollars being wasted.
All the time, we hear, that all B.C. school districts do not have enough money to operate our school districts. A complete myth. All B.C. school districts have to have all expenses reviewed. Maybe one day, we will have a provincial government in Victoria that will take action and clean up all the wasted taxpayer dollars being spent by unqualified school board management all across the province. In the mean time, keep paying your taxes that go up every year, because of the above complete nonsense. Unbelievable!
Joe Sawchuk
Duncan