School District 57 trustees voted against upping their pay, pointing to school staff wage freezes and education cuts as dissuading factors.
At Tuesday's board meeting several trustees spoke against touching their salaries which are: $18,000 for the chair, $16,600 for vice chair and $15,000 for trustees.
"I'm personally not interested in looking at remuneration... when we still have staff who are under a freeze," said vice-chair Tim Bennett in reference to exempt staff who have been under a wage freeze since 2009.
This board has repeatedly brought up the issue since its election in October 2014.
Trish Bella brought up busing fees, which the board is considering to fulfill the government's administrative savings requirements. Last year the board had to find $727,000 in administrative savings but could use surplus money. This year that's not allowed.
At a previous meeting, the board heard bussing fees could raise $263,000 for the district, plus an additional $75,000 in route changes.
"I can't in good conscience consider an increase, how minimal or nominal... for myself if we're talking about cuts and we're talking about the remote idea of charging someone for a service," Bella said. "I don't think that minimizes the work that a trustee does."
The motion passed 5 to 1, with trustee Bruce Wiebe voting against.
But chairperson Tony Cable cautioned against being too conservative with trustee pay.
"This is a very difficult subject especially when you're talking about your own remuneration but I also think we have to think of future trustees," he said. "We need to value education."
Prince George City Council provides a good comparison, he said. In 2011, councillors voted unanimously to raise their salaries by 30 per cent, which translated to about $7,000 each a year.
"I don't know if this is the time... but we have to be careful that we don't fall in the trap where four or five years down the road, like city council, we have to do a massive wage to bring people up to remuneration that's comparable," Cable said.
The current cost of school board officials adds up to about $110,000.
"In my mind that is absolutely phenomenal bang for the buck," Cable said before pulling up numbers from comparable districts where trustees are paid more.
"We're probably falling a little behind and we're going to have to have this tough decision in the future just to recognize the tough work the trustees do and to make sure future trustees are fairly remunerated."
