The subject of local sponsorships and donations became a lively topic at the Abbotsford board of education meeting on Tuesday (May 13).
At last month's meeting, board members asked for an updated list of donations and sponsorships following a request from the Abbotsford Agrifair and staff provided a table featuring the last four years of donations from the board ahead of this month's meeting.
The table showed donations from the board over the past four years including: Abbotsford Sports Hall of Fame ($4,000), Archway Golf Tournament ($1,500), Big Brothers Big Sisters ($5,000), Character Abbotsford ($20,000), District Parent Advisory Council ($20,000), Fraser Valley Cultural Diversity Awards ($9,000) and Skills Canada ($7,000).
Trustees voted on motions to support the 2025 Archway Golf Tournament, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Abbotsford Agrifair request.
Trustee Jared White expressed his concerns with money being diverted away from the schools themselves.
"I appreciate that these are charities and they're doing their fundraising but I think we are also a charity," he said. "I believe in the work we're doing and philosophically I want every dollar to go into the classroom so I don't think I'll be supporting any of these requests or any in the future. It's not because I don't think these are worthy things, I just think money should be spent in the classroom and there are lots of other places they can raise their money from."
White was the lone vote against the donations for the Archway Golf Tournament and Big Brothers Big Sisters. White and Trustee Rupi Kanda-Rajwan were the two votes against donating $500 to Abbotsford Agrifair.
Trustee Stan Petersen disagreed with White and stated that these organizations do great work with local kids. Kanda-Rajwan stated that donating to some of these groups helps build a connection with the community and helps everyone.
"When we're involved in community initiatives it shows that we're having a collaboration and working together as a community and supporting our students as a whole," she said.
Deputy superintendent and interim secretary-treasurer Nathan Ngieng also pointed out that a group like Big Brothers Big Sisters does provide support for after-school programming in a number of local elementary schools, which is a priority for the board. They also serve children of all ages, local volunteers and help arrange in-school mentoring.
White pointed out that he appreciates the work that Big Brothers Big Sisters does, but they have a large pool of other donors to receive money from.
"Maybe this isn't true but I keep hearing stories of teachers having to buy supplies for themselves for example," he said. "I think $5,000 could go a long way and it's hard to justify this when there's need."
Kanda-Rajwan retorted back and stated that Big Brothers Big Sisters offers more value.
"For some of these kids it's about mental health," she said, noting that for some kids the services that Big Brothers Big Sisters provides gets them to come to school.
White said he doesn't believe that the board not funding Big Brothers Big Sisters would not significantly impact the group's work.
"I see the value in the organization but the question is should we be using our money to support them," he said. "Not whether they do good work or not."
Kanda-Rajwan reiterated what she thinks the group does for students.
"I see what you're saying but coming from a mental health perspective, I've seen friends when I was in school that went through Big Brothers and I'm a huge advocate for them but I see the bigger picture of what they do for students and if we can be a part of that I'm all for that," she said.
Abbotsford Agrifair did provide the board with numbers on attendance and stated that 89 per cent of attendees are local families. Those in favour of supporting Agrifair said that the $500 is a more reasonable ask than what was proposed before.
"This is the first time they've asked for it and we do have a lot of families and students going over there and there are some student presentations there as well," he said. "So it's a good cause."
Professional growth
The board also announced the adoption of two goals as part of their professional growth plan following a recent self-evaluation session.
The two goals are:
- Focus on Student Learning and Achievement: Continuously review, understand, and align our meetings, debates, and discussions to focus on our students, how they are doing, and what we can do better for their success and achievement as a board, and as a district;
- Improve Governance: Be aware of policies and processes, and respect the norms that guide our participation, attendance, contributions, and community presence. Be mindful that the governance level is distinct from operations.
White asked that the two goals be severed and stated he was concerned with the wording of norms in the second goal.
"I'm concerned that the norms aren't fully flushed out in terms of what they mean," he said. "And, I'm concerned those norms could refer to historical norms as in let's keep doing things the way we've always done them. I'm concerned about how that may be used and how it's worded. I do not support that."
Trustee Mike Rauch added that he wanted to make it clear to the public that he and White were not present at the last meeting where these were adopted. That is because both were censured earlier this year for violating board policies.
"It feels overly prescriptive and given what the last few months have entailed and I'm not supportive of the number two item," he said.
Trustee's Petersen and Rai responded and stated that Rauch and White were at the earlier meetings where goals were rated and it was decided at those meetings what the top two goals to look at were.
"We have not changed anything from what we discussed when you were involved in looking at the five areas," Petersen said.
"Nothing was changed without you being there," Trustee Preet Rai said.
Rauch said that governance wouldn't be on his list and he would rather see literacy, numeracy, extra-curricular items and more support for teachers on his list.
"We started this six months ago and it's going to be difficult to have a self-evaluation in six months without having goals in front of us," trustee chair Shirley Wilson said. "The themes were identified and brought to a planning session and they were ranked by all seven of us and for everybody those were the top goals."
She said they were all ranked and there was a significant gap between the top two chosen and the rest.
"We did not vote on anything it was just a planning session," she added. "So it was by consensus. It's a place for us to move forward with the goals that were identified by the board. The norms, for clarification, were established by this board when it started in November 2022. We will work towards those goals by consensus and in no way was this done without two trustees."
Kanda-Rajwan said the goals are something that all seven have been working on for six months and pointed out that White helped make the mission statement more concise.
The next board meeting is set for June 17.
