Article content
The chair of the Thames Valley District school board won’t say if trustees approved pay raises of up to 33 per cent for senior administration in 2023 because they are being reviewed by the Ministry of Education.
“Executive compensation is being reviewed by a ministry-ordered independent audit,” board chair Beth Mai said in an email when asked about trustee involvement in the pay raises.
Article content
The Thames Valley board is being audited by the ministry in the wake of a $38,000, three-day August retreat for 18 board administrators at the hotel in the Rogers Centre in Toronto, home of the Toronto Blue Jays. Details of the retreat were first reported by The Free Press.
Mai said trustees didn’t know some details about the annual planning session before it was held.
“No members of the board were aware that the location of the August retreat for 2024-25 planning would be offsite,” said Mai, a London trustee.
Education Minister Jill Dunlop said in September the operational audit of the Thames Valley board also will examine “executive members’ compensation.”
Senior administrators at the Thames Valley board were paid 12 to 33 per cent more in 2023 compared to the previous year.
The board is struggling with a $16.8-million deficit even after it cut 58 elementary and 24 high school teaching jobs, 17 early childhood educator posts and four speech and psychological services positions.
The board eliminated the equivalent of 33 high school teaching jobs last month, meaning “principals will have to cut classes here and there,” interim education director Bill Tucker said.
Article content
Tucker replaced education director Mark Fisher just days into the new school year after Fisher took a medical leave.
A Thames Valley board spokesperson said at the time there are no salary increases in 2024 and the board is “working within the established executive compensation framework that was approved in 2018.”
The London District Catholic school board also handed out large year-over-year raises to administrators in 2023.
Vince Romeo, director of education, earned $200,000 in 2022 and $276,073 in 2023, an increase of 38 per cent.
The pay for Mark Santandrea, executive superintendent of education, jumped 47 per cent from $153,329 in 2022 to $226,738 in 2023.
Catholic board chair Gabe Pizzuti said the board has “experienced a dramatic increase in student enrolment over the last five years.”
Salaries, he said, are reflective “of the levels outline in the broader Public Sector Accountability Act established by our government in 2017.
“Our board is in Level 4, with salaries reflective of that level,” said Pizzuti, a London trustee.
The Catholic board spent $16,000 on an out-of-town planning session for 26 senior staff members.
The group of 26 senior staffers stayed overnight at the Stone Mill Inn in St. Catharines on Aug. 22. Rooms there range from $109 to $167 a night, according to the hotel’s website.
In November, Ontario Premier Doug Ford ordered an audit of all Ontario school boards
Recommended from Editorial
Share this article in your social network
