VICTORIA — Vancouver school board officials say they’re disappointed the provincial government deliberately excluded them from a $35-million grant program designed to help upgrade aging facilities.

Education Minister Mike Bernier unveiled a full list Thursday of the 109 projects at schools across the province receiving money for “routine” capital projects, such as upgrades to heating, windows, electrical, water and fire protection systems. The money is earmarked to extend the lifespan of the school buildings. Noticeably absent was any funding toward Vancouver school district facilities.

“I’m going to try and keep positive, even though we’re all pissed off,” said Fraser Ballantyne, board chair. “In the bigger picture of things, I think Vancouver is moving in the right direction and this is sort of just a little hiccup.”

Vancouver applied for $5 million in projects, which it said was needed to help fix the district’s many aging schools. But the board, which has been at loggerheads with the provincial government over its management of district finances and reluctance to close underused schools, received no response from ministry officials.

“I’m disappointed,” said Ballantyne. “The maintenance is always a huge issue for us. It’s going to be good for kids in general across B.C., but not for kids in Vancouver.”

Bernier’s ministry said in a statement that it decided to exclude Vancouver after launching the funding program in August. Its original announcement made no reference to that decision.

“In the process of weighing these special capital funding applications, the government focused on school projects with the greatest return on investment and on districts outside Vancouver, which normally receive much less capital funding than Vancouver,” the ministry said.

“There is no change to the normal annual facilities funding going to Vancouver or other districts.”

The government is already spending $57.8 million to restore Kitsilano secondary, which it says is one of the biggest capital school renovation projects in B.C. history.

Seven other districts did not receive new funding, though five of those chose not to submit applications and two did not meet the funding requirements, making Vancouver the only district excluded deliberately by the government.

The Liberal government has long had a tense relationship with the Vancouver school board. Earlier this year, it appointed a special adviser to audit the district, amid criticisms of how trustees handle long-term planning and finances. The resulting report recommended closing as many as 19 schools to save money, something Vancouver has resisted in the past.

Vancouver’s exclusion shows that the board’s attempt to be quiet, polite and work with the province recently has been misguided, said trustee Patti Bacchus.

“We have so many old aging schools with out-of-date roofing systems and heating systems and efficiencies that need to be done,” said Bacchus, a former board chair. “We’re way behind on our maintenance funding and we’ve been asking government for years to increase that. So this is pretty shocking.”

There are also questions on whether politics influenced the funding decisions.

Liberal MLAs had been allowed to announce school upgrade funding in their ridings recently, effectively taking credit for the money on behalf of the government.

But Opposition NDP MLAs weren’t given the same opportunity in their ridings, even if their local schools received funds.

“Government MLAs made the routine capital funding announcements on behalf of the ministry, as they often do,” the education ministry said in a statement.

NDP critic Rob Fleming said he believes “politics are at play rather than a needs-based grant system.”

“It’s only Liberals who have been given photo ops,” said Fleming.

rshaw@vancouversun.com