New Westminster school trustees have agreed to a 2% pay increase for school board members.
Trustees voted in favour of the move at their Jan. 18 operations committee meeting.
Secretary-treasurer Bettina Ketcham, in a report to trustees, said the board follows a policy that outlines how trustee stipend increases happen. Increases, if approved by the board, come into effect on July 1 each year and are based on the most recent five-year rolling average of the consumer price index (CPI).
For this year, that would mean an increase of 2.08% – which Ketcham noted would be in line with increases given to the school district’s unionized staff. Both CUPE (which represents support workers) and the New Westminster Teachers’ Union are receiving 2% annual raises.
The increase means trustees will make $26,307, up from $25,771. The vice-chair will earn $28,141, up from $27,568, while the chair will make $29,975, up from $29,364.
The increase overall to the school district’s budget is $3,864, plus benefits, for a total of $4,444.
Because there is a school board election this October, most of the increase will apply to the next set of trustees who sit on the school board – which may or may not include current sitting board members.
Trustee Mary Lalji, who cast the lone vote in opposition to the move, said she felt the money would be better directed towards the school district’s lunch program, which is facing rising costs.
But trustee Maya Russell said there’s nothing stopping trustees from donating back their own increase if they’re in a position to do so.
“I don’t think any of us particularly relish passing this, but I do think it’s important that it happen according to a rolling average and that we keep this rolling along,” she said. “I think this is how we continue to make this role accessible to others in the community.”
Trustee Anita Ansari agreed, noting not everyone is in the position of “privilege” to be able to donate the increase.
Ansari said that, while the board has a responsibility to help its vulnerable students with the food program, it also needs to consider that some future trustees may need the stipend more than others.
“I see us as having due diligence to also take care of vulnerable people who might be coming into this position,” she said. “I don’t want this time that people spend to be devalued in the future.”
Trustee Mark Gifford also spoke in favour of the increase.
“As awkward as it feels sometimes … this was a policy put into place in 2017 to avoid the even greater awkwardness of making more subjective, variable recommendations on what adjustments would look like each year,” he said. “It’s a consistent way to offer a reasonable way of looking at stipend adjustments over time, consistent with the CPI.”
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