Megan Dykeman (Township) – Yes. We have paid off our deficit 2 years early, we have implemented ALL of the Auditor General’s recommendations, and the Auditor General has declared that we have become a financially responsible district. We have year over year provided a balanced budget with restricted surplus.
Kristine Ketter (Township) – Yes. I am pleased to see the changes that have been made to the financal situation in the Langley School District. I feel that Langley has done a very good job of using the dollars they’re given to the best of their ability, making the best choices to increase overall achievement for the students in our district.
Alison McVeigh (Township) – Yes. Since the deficit of $13.5 million was uncovered in 2008, the Board has worked very hard to rebuild the District’s finances. The District has worked with the Provincial Auditor General’s office who provided us with an in depth report which included 28 recommendations to strengthen internal controls to ensure that the problem never happened again. For the past 6 years, and with the continued oversight of Auditor General’s Office, we have implemented almost all of the recommendations in the report. The Board created an Audit Committee to provide oversight in the District, strengthened finance policies, put strong internal controls in place and most importantly paid of the deficit in full a year early. The Board has also re-built the School Districts finance team that is strong, highly skilled and very focused on ensuring that the District’s finances remains strong.
Suzanne Perreault (Township) – The school district has gone through some incredible changes in the last few years by ways of seeing new staff members come in at the District level, interfacing with a deficit to clear up and a Trustee campaign. In the midst of it all they rose up and shown themselves to be good stewards of funding and their respective roles. However, I would like to see more attention paid to the Level I, II & III Special Needs designation and how monies are distributed and allocated to schools. That will be an area I will continue to pay attention to.
Rod Ross (Township) – Yes. I am very proud of the Finance team in all aspects. Never an easy job to take a district in a deficit of $13 million and turn it around, but they did it a year earlier than projected. Plus the Board has a rainy day fund of $2 million which is the envy of every other school district in the province. The Audit General is the districts auditor and they have given us a clean bill of health. We have good people in the finance department and they need to be applauded for their strengthening of the district’s finances.