Modest wage increase for Prince George school trustees amid COVID-19

School District No. 57 (SD57) trustees voted in favour of a pay increase during last night’s public meeting (Nov. 24).

The topic of the annual uptick in salaries for the Prince George board of education was brought forward as a matter of housekeeping from the management and finance committee for the board to debate.

The proposed three per cent increase is based on the same increment as the grid lift directed by the BC School Employers’ Association (BCSEA) for exempt staff.

“I will say this does result in a monthly increase to each trustee of $55, which equates to a $660 annual increase per trustee and a $4,620 total increase to the operating budget,” explained Trustee Tim Bennett.

This increase to annual remuneration as it would increase the Chairperson's salary, albeit modestly, from $22,002 to $22,662, the Vice-Chairperson from $20,502 to $21,162, and Trustees from $19,002 to $19,662.

However, not all trustees were in favour of the increase with Sharel Warrington opposing the three per cent, citing the current remuneration freeze for exempt staff like Secretary-Treasurer and Assistant Superintendents.

“It also sends a message that we do need to be frugal in these times where there are many calls for the dollars that we need to support our students,” said Warrington.

“Just the fact our exempt staff have been asked to freeze their incremental changes I am not going to support this. I feel very strongly that we are setting an example.”

All of the trustees noted it was a difficult topic to address, but Vice-Chair Shuirose Valimohamed noted that the exempt staff have much higher salaries than the board itself so their annual increase would be more than a few hundred dollars.

“This is not a lot of money. If we keep not incrementally increasing trustee remuneration we are not going to get in the next election, quality candidates running for trustees,” added Valimohamed.

Trustee Bennett added that with the time commitment needed to serve on the board away from family and other careers, he doesn’t believe an individual should be in danger of losing money in service to the district.

“I know of trustees who by February have utilized all of their vacation time, taking away time from their families, taking away time from their employer and taking it unpaid,” said Bennett.

“If we are not offering some kind of fair compensation, we are not going to attract diverse candidates to run for trustee. You are only going to attract people who can financially afford to serve.”

He also noted past boards have brought in third-party committees to review trustee remuneration structure, and suggested the finance and management committee could add that to their work plan.

SD57 continues to face challenges because of the COVID-19 pandemic and is expecting a funding shortfall of $3.2 million from the Education Ministry as it's also short 425 full-time K-12 students for the 2020-21 school year. 

In September, this caused the district to combine divisions and reassign teachers to new roles in distributed learning or teachers teaching on call (TTOC) until positions become available.

 “Sometimes I think that is what we need to do is think bigger picture and long term and we do want to have a continuous slate of candidates so it’s not a detriment for people to run,” noted Board Chair Trent Derrick.

Six of the seven trustees voted in favour of the annual remuneration increase with Trustee Warrington opposing.