NW SD Business Company: You might just be astonished to know...

For years now, I have heard complaints about the School District Business Company.  The disinformation has been wide-spread and has, for too long, clouded concerns around the value of the Business Company.  Trustee Brent Atkinson's claim this year that the Business Company saved the New Westminster school district from a $1 mil deficit is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.  In fact, were it not for the debt the Business Company has owed the district for ten years, our district would not have suffered such dark days in recent years.  The no pay back date of the $1 mil dollars the Business Company owed the district and no plan to pay interest was only very recently addressed after much public pressure including Voice incumbent trustees, Casey Cook and Jim Goring.

While it is true that Brent Atkinson and others, (Secretary Treasurer Brian Sommerfeldt amongst others) turned the Business Company around from when Michael Ewen was running things, it is disingenuous to suggest that the Business Company is making a profit until it pays back the full amount of the loan it took from New Westminster school district - money so badly needed in our classrooms.  The continued inference from the CEO of the Business Company, Brent Atkinson, that the Company is somehow benevolent in paying "profits" back to the district belies the problem of allowing a sitting trustee to run a district Business Company.  The sole purpose of any school district business company is to turn a profit for the benefit of the school district, its students and personnel!

It is notable that Mr. Atkinson does not draw a salary.  Benevolent some might say.  Or is it?  How can a Business Company be sustainable when staff who work for the benefit of a company receive no remuneration?  It does answer many questions I have had about how it is that a seemingly "conservative" School Board trustee went from battling in the trenches with the District Labour endorsed candidates, Michael Ewen, James Janzen and Lori Watt, to claiming that they were the only collegial members of the Board.  As a parent who attended meetings regularly for the past three years (missing only one meeting in 2008 Sept-Jun), I can attest to the fact that this is not what I witnessed at the School Board meetings I attended.  The kind of politicking at the Board table for the last three years has not come from the Voice incumbent trustees.  In fact, the opposite could be said of Voice incumbent trustees, Casey Cook, Jim Goring and Lisa Graham who have remained calm in the face of this and other serious issues that must be dealt with.  

The operation of the Business Company would turn the heads of bankers everywhere.  To get the full story, read about the Freedom of Information request here put out by Casey Cook and Jim Goring and the Business Company's response (aka, Brent Atkinson) response here.

To get the full story and the context read this.  You might just be astonished.