Corporate classrooms costly

 Blinkered by the books

 Ontario formula paves P3 way — but boards not biting

 Off-book but overpriced

 Public pension fund backs private schools

 High price, high risk

 Community impact

 Private service, public cost: Canadians confront rising user fees...

How many lawyers does it take to build a school?

Under the traditional method of school construction, you might assume the school board, the ministry and the general contractor would each have a lawyer and an accountant reviewing the project and funding arrangements. With lease-back schools, there are almost as many tax lawyers as there are classrooms, but there’s no evidence that students or taxpayers are any better off.

Corporate overhead in Nova Scotia P3 schools

Owner of School
Borealis Penco (Nova Scotia)
A subsidiary of OMERS established to hold OMERS investment in Nova Scotia schools

Financier
Borealis Funds Management Ltd. A subsidiary of OMERS

Borealis Infrastructure Trust
Public debt vehicle designed to issue bonds for school construction

Asset Manager
Oxford Properties Inc. Manages assets on behalf of Borealis

Developer
Ashford Investments Inc. Awarded contract to build 16 Nova Scotia schools

Contractor
PCL/Meridian

Supplier
Atlantic Netcom

Operator
Local school board

Community impact

Public concern about P3 schools in Nova Scotia has been high since the first school was announced five years ago. Community schools closed and amalgamated to form regional mega-schools, leaving rural residents to face long bus rides and the demolition of structurally sound buildings that served as community hubs. Developers exerting undue influence over site selection meant corporate — not community — interests dictated where new schools were built. Accountability and control shifted from parents and boards to corporations and secret lease deals.

Local anger about the P3 process peaked last March in eastern Nova Scotia, when parents occupied an area school and the office of Conservative leader John Hamm for several weeks. That spirited opposition to P3 schools is happening province-wide. While there will always be disagreement in communities over where to locate new schools, the P3 scheme adds a new and powerful influence to the original parent-school board dynamic — that of the developers and corporations. Too often corporate interests carry the day at the expense of community needs. In Kentville, parents are challenging a recent site selection, charging that the private interests of the consortium chair, who owns several hectares of land beside the selected site and is a Liberal party supporter, unduly influenced the process. The school board, unable to reach a consensus, left the decision to the consortium — a serious slippage in public process and public accountability.

About 270 Kentville students will have to be bussed 19 km to the new school, despite the protests of parents pointing to a more central site. Delays to three other P3 junior high schools slated to open last September mean students face making up the lost time by staying in school an extra 10 or 20 minutes a day.

At least one lease-back school is in an environmentally risky location. A school in Sydney is being built less than 600 meters from a hazardous waste incinerator. The Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment regulations forbid an operating incinerator to be within 1,500 meters of a school. While the incinerator is currently idle, the government is still bankrolling it and some expect the facility to be part of the cleanup of the Sydney tar ponds. The government says environmental assessments have found the school to be safe, but this does little to allay the fears of concerned parents.

Community outrage and a concerted CUPE campaign have forced the Conservative government to acknowledge the potential for serious conflict of interest that existed in the site selection process. In December, the province’s deputy minister of education announced that school boards and community representatives would decide where a new school should be built, eliminating private developers from the equation.

Community accountability is diminished by agreements shrouded in secrecy. Parents, unions and members of the legislative assembly have had great difficulty obtaining information on P3 schools approved for construction. The latest agreements, those signed with Ashford, prohibit the release of information without the company’s approval. Only lease information required by law can be made available on a regular basis. This lack of transparency stands in stark contrast to open school board budgeting processes, and is a barrier to understanding the true economic impact of P3 schools.

In Pictou County, the school board is building two large P3 schools to replace six community schools, despite public protests that the decision making process was flawed and undemocratic. The board allowed debate only on its final proposal to build two mega-schools at a cost of $40 million. Parents complain that individual schools were not reviewed and the case for consolidation has not been made. Estimated renovation costs for the existing schools are about $28 million.

In the Strait school district, funding and economic arguments fuelled school board decisions to close and amalgamate schools. Yet parents estimate that the new mega-school will be up to 150 students short of capacity, leaving them wondering why small rural schools were closed. Some parents work in towns more than 100 km from the school their children attend. Some commutes to school are an hour long.

Parents in the Strait district also complain that a relatively new school in Judique was closed after a perfunctory review. The 22-year old building is in good shape. Consultants spent only 17 minutes in the school before making their recommendation, and in their final report referred to a section of the school as "old and unsound" that had been demolished four years ago.

When it comes to jobs, the impact on workers is unknown. Job security is a feature of collective agreements negotiated to date with support staff and custodial workers. While corporations may promise high upkeep at first, school boards are locked into lengthy lease agreements. After an initial good impression, there is nothing to prevent the corporate ‘partners’ from cutting back on maintenance and upkeep, in order to squeeze a little more profit out of the lease. This corner cutting may come through layoffs or contracting out, both of which will mean dirtier, unsafe schools and a blow to the local economy.

Private ownership of schools threatens community access. The Horton High School lease agreement is supposed to provide "considerable after-hours use" to the school and community. Yet the board’s use of the school is capped at 3,000 hours annually. According to the government, even with 15-hour use of the school every day there could still be activities in the gym on weekends. But if the school exists for students and the community, the use should be unlimited and not subject to the corporation’s terms.

Keeping P3s out of the 3Rs

Canadian children deserve high quality education in high quality buildings. Canada’s experience with lease back schools shows that governments can build those buildings more cheaply themselves and avoid expensive "partnerships" that bypass community needs. Education is far too important to be left in private sector hands.