Officials at the Waterloo Region District School Board say they understand why people might be upset to learn the board recently completed a $1-million renovation to its boardroom – but say cancelling the renovation would have meant a worse deal for taxpayers.
Plans for the renovation were approved in 2012, when the school board had no idea it would be facing a bleak financial picture in the near future, says board vice-chair Elliot Fung.
Funding for the renovation came out of a budget separate from the WRDSB’s annual operating budget – which has since fallen into projected deficit positions, leading to staffing cuts and the closure of a Mennonite school in St. Jacobs.
The money could not have been used to avert any of those outcomes, Fung tells CTV News, because by the time the board looked at doing so, they had entered into contracts that carried financial penalties for cancellation.
“The two funding streams are completely different,” he says.
Fung did not know whether the funds could have been redirected to renovations at schools.
Reports earlier this week of the boardroom renovation sparked controversy online and on the streets of Waterloo Region.
“Where EVER did the board get the idea that ONE MILLION DOLLARS was an acceptable amount to spend on a Board Room???” said Kirk Walker in a comment on Kitchener.CTVNews.ca.
“A million dollars could have helped my sons school from closing in June,” added Dianne Hiscox on CTV Kitchener’s Facebook page.
Fung says he’s heard from a number of upset parents on the issue, but many have been “relieved” after being told the board couldn’t have simply taken money out of one pot and put it in the other.
“They understand that while the optics aren’t great, we couldn’t just move the one-time funding that we had for this room into some of the other initiatives that we were looking at,” he says.
As for the cost, the school board has released a breakdown of the expenses.
The biggest factor was the construction contract, including mould and asbestos removal, which totalled $787,000.
Another $137,000 was spent on furniture, equipment and technology, while design and engineering cost $51,000.
Contacted by CTV News, Education Minister Liz Sandals declined to offer an opinion on the specific issue.
In a statement, she said she expects public funds to be used on “the most pressing education priorities” and believes school boards are the right bodies to determine those priorities.
Cambridge MPP Rob Leone, the education critic for the Progressive Conservatives, suggests the money could have been better spent.
“We are very concerned about school boards who are spending money outside the classroom when they’re faced with such challenging times fiscally,” he says.
Kitchener-Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife was the WRDSB’s chair when the decision was made to renovate the boardroom.
She defends the decision to renovate, noting that the vote was unanimous and the renovated space is “now more accessible to the public who can participate in the decisions of their school board.”
In addition to the boardroom, a trustee lounge in the same section of the office was part of the renovation.
Fung says he’s seen an increase in collaboration among trustees since the renovation of the lounge.
