Union: Trustees must come clean on who OK’d big school board pay hikes

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The head of a union representing 1,600 Thames Valley District school board employees says she wants to know whether trustees approved senior staff pay raises of up to 33 per cent that began in 2023.

The board’s chair, Beth Mai, was asked this week by The Free Press whether she and her colleagues OK’d the big hikes now under review amid a sweeping Queen’s Park audit – only to reply that “executive compensation is being reviewed by a ministry-ordered independent audit.”

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That’s not good enough for Mary Henry, president of CUPE Local 4222, which represents 1,600 board employees including secretaries, educational assistants and early childhood educators.

“While we can understand the board’s position to be cautious of the audit, it’s a common question that has been asked by members for quite some time especially when, even during bargaining, it was said that there is not enough money for raises,” Henry said of the year-over-year pay bumps for executives that ranged from 12 to 33 per cent.

The school board, Ontario’s fourth-largest, was faced with a provincial audit after The Free Press uncovered a $38,000, three-day August retreat for 18 board administrators at the former SkyDome hotel. The Blue Jays played on all three dates and the trip was taken amid a multi-million-dollar budget deficit.

Mai said she and her fellow trustees didn’t know the location of the annual pre-school-year session before it was held.

The raises are another matter entirely for Henry, who says many of the workers she represents feel the big pay bumps were “a disrespect for those that actually have their boots on the ground” in Thames Valley schools.

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“The funding provided to schools is for the necessary needs of the students, which also include staff that work with or for the students,” she said. “That should always be the main focus.”

John Bernans is a local leader with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation. He said it’s “the lack of transparency surrounding these decisions” that hurts trust in the school board leadership.

“It’s difficult to understand the rationale behind significant raises for senior administration, particularly when the board has had to cut back on resources and eliminate teaching and support staff positions to address budget constraints,” he said.

“This is especially troubling as the board struggles to recruit and retain qualified education workers due to wages that remain below market standards.”

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 more high school teaching jobs last month, meaning “principals will have to cut classes here and there,” interim education director Bill Tucker said.

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.

HRivers@postmedia.com
@HeatheratLFP

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