National Post (National Edition)
Environment ‘toxic’ at Vancouver School Board: report
Management said to create ‘culture of fear’
VANCOUVER • Staff at the Vancouver School Board were bullied, harassed and endured a toxic work environment while carrying out their duties last year, an external investigation has found.
An executive summary of the report was released on Friday, just over four months after the British Columbia School Superintendents Association filed a complaint about the treatment of employees at the board.
“Today is not an easy day,” said trustee Dianne Turner at a news conference. “I find it deeply troubling that we are speaking about bullying and harassment at the Vancouver School Board. Every day we talk to our students about how bullying is unacceptable.”
A timeline supplied with the summary shows by the time the probe began, the board’s secretary-treasurer, superintendent and entire senior management team were on indefinite leave, although all senior staff have since returned to the job.
Education Minister Mike Bernier fired the school board’s elected trustees days later, on Oct. 17, for failing to pass a balanced budget and replaced the elected board with Turner, the sole trustee. Turner is a former school district superintendent in nearby Delta.
The full report by lawyer Roslyn Goldner was not made public. Interim secretary-treasurer Guy Bonnefoy said the district expects to receive freedom of information requests and is preparing a redacted copy to be released in response.
Turner said she was deeply distressed by the findings in the report.
“It was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to read,” she said. “Suffice it to say, I became quite emotional having to read about the incidents described in the report.”
The summary, which does not include names or specific incidents, said the board’s conduct breached the requirement to provide employees with an emotionally safe and respectful work environment.
Members of the board routinely engaged in conduct that was “uncivil, disrespectful and rude,” the summary said, and members of the senior management staff faced direct bullying and personal harassment, creating a “culture of fear” in which they felt their job security was at risk.
Of particular significance, the summary said, was the behaviour of certain trustees in relation to plans to close 11 schools in the district. By September 2016, it was untenable for members of the senior management team to remain in the workplace, it said.
“I find the allegations that certain trustees ‘threw the staff under the bus’ an apt descriptor of the trustees’ conduct,” Goldner said in the summary.
“I accept the evidence that certain trustees’ public attack of the work of senior staff related to the school closure process undermined and publicly embarrassed and humiliated the superintendent and the senior management team.”
In response, fired trustees Joy Alexander, Patti Bacchus, Mike Lombardi and Allan Wong released a joint statement saying that they stand by their decision in early October to suspend the process of school closures. No schools have been closed to date.
“We treated all VSB staff with respect and courtesy and we did not participate in or witness workplace bullying or harassment. We are concerned to hear the findings of the report and agree that workplace bullying and harassment are unacceptable,” the statement said.
“We continue to be concerned by the political interference in the democratic process by the provincial government as a way to deflect from their neglect of public education.”
WorkSafeBC said it reviewed Goldner’s report and concluded her investigation met its standards. It issued an inspection report that indicated the school board’s harassment and bullying policies were in compliance with its requirements.