A number of people in the Sea to Sky School District’s upper management are earning more, according to recently released financial statements.
In total, the raises — after being offset by salary decreases — add up to $494,891.
Shehzad Somji, secretary treasurer for the school district, said the raises were made for the 2016 to 2017 school year because there had previously been a multi-year freeze on salaries for those considered “exempt staff.”
Exempt staff are those who aren’t part of a union. This can include upper management and those who work in the school district offices.
In some cases, the freezes go back as far as 2008, Somji said during the December meeting of the school district’s finance committee.
In 2015, the province, via the Public School Employers’ Council and the BC Public School Employers’ Association, did a market survey comparing how much school exempt staff are paid in comparison with similar jobs elsewhere, Somji said.
Through this, authorities came up with new salary ranges for the school board jobs, he said.
The school board was then granted the ability to move their staff to the first bracket within that suggested salary range, he continued.
“That was done with the approval of PSEC, it wasn’t just a board decision,” he added.
The board decision was on the superintendent’s salary, Somji said.
It’s worth noting that there are complications in some areas.
Data for some employees isn’t always available for both the year ending 2016 and the year ending 2017.
This would imply that the person was working for only one of those years or at one point had a salary that was below $75,000, which is the threshold for reporting earnings.
In other cases, a person’s job title has changed, which could also be a reason why his or her pay rose or fell.
In total, the school district spent $35.8 million in pay for all its employees for the school year ending June 2017, up from $34.9 million in the school year ending on June 2016.
The total amount of expenditures recorded in the past year’s statement of financial information was about $55.85 million, which is roughly on par with the previous year’s tally of $55.89 million.
Biggest expenditures for goods and services for the 2016 to 2017 school year.
Teachers pension $3.4 million - pension
Pacific Blue Cross $984,565 - Health benefits
Municipal Superannuation $761,637 - Pension plan for staff other than teachers
First Truck Centre Vancouver $677,399 - Purchased three busses and bus parts
BC Hydro $551,612 - Electricity bills
CDW Canada Inc. $462,167 - Computer equipment
Planet Clean Canada $459,793 - Cleaning
Squamish Nation $318,049 - Education Programs
Lil'Wat Nation $261,268 - Education Programs
Workers Compensation $233,579 - Premiums
