Four Burnaby school district officials are in China this week on a trip one trustee is calling a big waste of money.
Superintendent Gina Niccoli-Moen, secretary-treasurer Russell Horswill and trustees Baljinder Narang and Larry Hayes have joined delegates from the City of Burnaby, Burnaby Board of Trade and Tourism Burnaby on a March 7 to 17 trip that will touch down in four Chinese cities, including Hong Kong.
Based on costs she said were quoted in a private board meeting ($9,200 per person), trustee Meiling Chia estimates the trip will cost taxpayers nearly $37,000 – more if Niccoli-Moen’s and Horswill’s salaries are factored in.
Chia also estimates the trip will consist of only about 40 per cent education business, with the other time spent in transit and on city business.
“We’re paying that amount of money for basically only three to four days education-related business,” Chia told the NOW. “… I’m just thinking it’s super waste of money.”
In the past, trustees have paid their own way to join city delegations abroad, according to Chia.
This time the district is picking up the tab, but the trip was never discussed at a public board meeting.
In private meetings, Chia said she questioned why the superintendent and secretary-treasurer were going instead of the head of the district’s international education program.
She said she was told it would be a good chance for them to build relationships with city staff.
“I said, ‘Why we paying that much money just for them to build a relationship?’” Chia said. “How much that cost for them to mingle around here? To have a coffee?”
Chia said she had put her name forward to join the delegation in China since she had already paid for her own trip to Guandong province, where her mother’s family is from and where she owns a home, but her name did not end up on the delegation list.
Staff told her the list had been approved by the board, she said, but she hadn’t been a part of the decision.
“I’m a trustee and I don’t even know what’s going on,” Chia said.
Board vice-chair Baljinder Narang, however, said the trip was no secret.
“There are lots of things that don’t necessarily come up to the public meeting,” she told the NOW. “This is part of one program, and it would get reported through the education committee. … A lot of things that happen, we report back on after the event, not necessarily before.”
Narang and Niccoli-Moen estimated the cost of the trip would be between $30,000 and $34,000, and the superintendent said she and Horswill won’t be paid extra for working over the spring break but will simply take those vacation days at a different time.
Such trips are basically the cost of doing business, according to Niccoli-Moen.
“It’s a $20-million-plus business,” said the superintendent of the district’s thriving international program, “so it’s very important for us to be intimately involved in that operation, both from the leadership, strategic visioning part as well as the financial. With a division that’s that large, there are costs for operating that kind of business. There’s also a budget built into that, a travel budget.”
Niccoli-Moen said the district has hosted numerous delegations from Burnaby’s sister and partner cities in China, and it was time to reciprocate.
“They’ve invited myself, personally, and the school district multiple times to go there,” she said.
As for the trip being only 40 per cent education related, the superintendent said she didn’t see it that way.
“They’re kind of intertwined,” she said.
Narang agreed.
In the past, when she has paid her own way to join city delegations, she said foreign municipal officials directed many school-related questions her way.
“For them, it’s one thing,” Narang said.
For Niccoli-Moen, the trip is all about forging links that will benefit students down the road.
“The more opportunities and pathways we can open for students the stronger our district is,” she said.
The actual cost of the trip hasn’t been confirmed.
