Corporate and union donation ban applies to school district
Corporate and union donations will be banned from local school district elections that will be taking place this fall.
Supt. Lisa McCullough said it would be good for the board, potential candidates and the public to become familiar with this new rule, as school board elections approach.
The Local Elections Campaign Financing Amendment Act, which was passed by the province in November last year, also limits individual campaigns contributions to $1,200.
Candidates running in the District of Squamish area can spend up to about $9,000. The limit is about $5,300 for Whistler candidates, and $5,000 for anyone running elsewhere in the Sea to Sky School District.
Another change, said McCullough, is that old election signs that are being reused from past campaigns will have to be counted towards a candidate’s spending limit.
McCullough also said anyone curious about running for a trustee position should contact the school district.
Staff will provide information to help anyone interested get started.
Six more teachers, please
The school district is asking for six more teachers in a preliminary request to the province.
It’s expected to cost about an $549,000 more in provincial funding in comparison with last year.
As the result of a court order to restore bargaining language to the BCTF agreement in November 2016, the province has been giving out cash to cover the cost of hiring more teachers.
These extra teachers are covered under what’s called the Classroom Enhancement Fund.
Assistant secretary-treasurer Ralph Hughes said in the previous school year, the Sea to Sky School District asked the province for 34.3 more teachers to be paid via this fund.
This year, the number has increased to 40.2 teachers.
Roughly 12 of them will be enrolling teachers, which describes educators who preside over classrooms, teaching subjects such as math, English and science.
Just over 28 of them will be non-enrolling teachers, who are educators that work as librarians, counsellors, special education resource teachers and so forth.
Altogether, this year’s request is expected to cost $4.09 million.
Each teacher costs $92,645 on average, including benefits and training, among other things.
Those numbers aren’t necessarily an indicator of the number of teachers that will be hired, as these represent the equivalent of a full-time teacher. Several part-timers can be hired to cover one full-time equivalent.
New faces
Anyone who’s been attending school district meetings for last few months will have noticed there are a few new fresh faces at the table.
Chris Nicholson now has a spot as the Sea to Sky School District’s second assistant superintendent, as of last month. Nicholson previously was director of instruction for the New Westminster School District.
Both he and assistant superintendent Paul Lorette have taken the reins from Jody Langlois, who was the sole person in that position until she left in January. Langlois now works at the Vancouver School Board.
The school board previously told The Chief that having one more assistant superintendent would cost an extra $20,000. One director of instructor position has been eliminated in order to partially offset the costs of having the extra assistant.
Assistant secretary-treasurer Ralph Hughes has stepped into Shehzad Somji’s chair. Somji left last month for a post at the Vancouver School Board.
Pay, guiding principles, code of conduct discussed
The school board discussed changes to its policies, including trustee pay, guiding principles and its code of conduct during its latest meeting.
Regarding pay, assistant secretary-treasurer Ralph Hughes said that under next year’s new Canada Revenue Agency regulations, a portion of trustees’ pay will no longer be tax-free.
The one-third portion that was tax exempt was intended to to cover expenses such as travel. The board floated the idea of using an expensing system to replace it, but eventually asked Hughes to do further research on other possible options.
The remuneration charts will also be changed to reflect trustees’ current salaries. Salaries change once every two years in accordance with the B.C. Consumer Price Index.
Two years ago, the board had a 1.05 per cent pay raise, Hughes said. At the end of this year, they’re expected to get a 1.95 per cent increase. Trustees’ salaries range between $11,457 to $13,900 per year.
Next up for discussion were the guiding principles for the board of education.
Chair Rick Price had concerns about how the language seemed to emphasize how the school district was “one of the biggest businesses” in B.C., yet left out student learning.
He suggested that changes be made to make it a student-centred policy.
There was some talk about removing language that specified trustees didn’t need education sector experience.
However, trustee Rebecca Barley said it was necessary to leave it in, as many people may assume that trustees need to have worked in a school in order to run for office.
There was also talk about clarifying language to state that trustees should be accessible to the public during community events.
At this point, the changes are merely suggestions. Staff will resume discussing the matter with the board around June and after that will present a revised policy draft for the trustees to adopt.
The proposed policy changes were discussed as part of a periodic review.
Supt. Lisa McCullough said it would be best to have the review before the October elections this year, as it’s harder for newly-elected boards to do the housekeeping due to lack of experience.
