Trustees Vote in Favour of Pay Hike
Prince George, B.C. – Prince George School Board trutees have voted in favour of giving themselves “a modest” pay increase.
Remuneration is reviewed on an annual basis by the Management and Finance Committee.
The seven trustees received their last pay hike in December 2014 – shortly after the last local elections were held in November 2014.
Their annual pay since that date is as follows:
- Chairperson – $18,000
- Vice-chairperson – $16,500
- Trustees – $15,000
Tonight trustees voted in support of increasing that pay by $270 a year for each position effective July 1, 2017.
( Which works out to a 1.5 per cent increase for the chair, 1.6 per cent for vice-chair and 1.8 per cent for trustees).
Management and Finance chair Sharel Warrington called it “a very modest increase” in light of all the work they put into the job – and in line with the amount of money trustees make in other parts of the province.
In supporting the motion Board chair Tim Bennett added trustees work on average anywhere from 20 to 30 hours a week and the increase still leaves them far behind what the average city councillor in Prince George makes.
Trustee Brenda Hooker was the lone dissenter. She expressed concern that the increase would go into effect prior to pay increases for the District’s exempt staff.
She added she was uncomfortable with the hike considering the District still doesn’t know what the financial implications will be of the BCTF’S Supreme Court of Canada victory over the provincial government last November.
Comments
How many of the trustees been there for years and how many just got in in the last two years??
Hi Stillsmokin.
Trustee Warrington was elected in 2005
Trustee Bella was elected in 2008
Trustee Hooker and I were elected in 2011
Trustees Cable, Weibe and Harris were elected in 2014
– Tim
That IS a modest rise in pay, but 15 Grand a year for a volunteer position ain’t bad either.
metalman.
if you are getting paid it isn’t a volunteer position. Volunteers don’t get paid. They might, if lucky, get out of pocket expenses but that will be it.
if they do work 30 hours a week on school board business, they are making less than 10 bucks an hour. 20 hours, less than 15. Not getting rich off that.
“trustees work on average anywhere from 20 to 30 hours a week”
For how many weeks?
over 52 weeks that works out to $11.50 per hour at 25 hours per week.
If they are more efficient, they can do the same work in 10 hours….
Let’s get some real figures in here and not embellish stuff.
How many meetings per year?
How many hours prep time per meeting?
How many hours other duties, such as attending other required events?
How many are retired?
Thank you Tim for trying to be transparent but we see two sides of you… In one story, you said something to the effect that a raise would not be appropiate considering there are some of your employees still on a two year wage freeze.. THEN you turn around and VOTE in favor of a raise… You just GOT the job..NOTHING notable that will make history but here you are getting a raise.
Another thing, being on a school board is not even comparable to being a City Councilor
Hi Stillsmoking. The comments in the last story were from last year. 250 used a quote i gave at the Board meeting in March 2016.
At this time all Exempt employees have recieved a raise or their transition plans to their new salary grid is in front of PSEC.
For those reasons i supported the recommendation.
Respectively, I believe the roles to have a lot of similarities. We as Trustees are responsible for a budget (including capital) of over $130,000. We are responsible for over 2000 staff stretching over an area of 52,000 square kilometers. We manage capital with close to 50 sites and work to ensure all students are getting a quality education. While the outcomes are different the work is comparable.
– Tim
My apologies. My comment should have read budget of $130,000,000.
All the best
Tim
It’s keeping the pay in line with inflation, and is not out of line – in fact, there may possibility of not paying enough to ensure they’re getting minimum wage.
How can you be the one VOTING for your own raise ?
Why don’t you let the rest of Scholl District employees do the same thing.
Makes NO Sense.
School
It doesn”t sound like these “trustees” can be trusted with our money.
This increase is by no means out of line. Based on the pay, I’d say nobody is doing this for the money.
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