If it were a boxing match it would be called a controversial split decision.
Quesnel School Trustees have voted themselves a raise.
4-3 was the final count in favour.
Trustee George Natalizio proposed the increase to their remuneration.
He says everybody eventually gets a raise, it is only 10 dollars a month and they felt it was their turn.
Natalizio says they also make much less than some of the other Trustees in the province…
“If you look at the school boards in Vancouver with Delta, and Surrey, and all of the other big districts down there some of them make $21,000 a year.”
“Does that mean there they have more students that are worth more than us, that does more work than us?”
“No, but the principle to them still applies.”
“So what is the difference of $21,000 down there and $11,000 in Quesnel? The work is the same.”
Trustees Dave Chapman, Wendy Clemente, and Howie Schonke also voted in favour of the increase.
Julie-Anne Runge, Gloria Jackson, and Board Chair Tony Goulet were opposed…
“I don’t like the idea personally because we have a wage freeze on for some of our staff since 2009.”
“That just seems wrong for us to take any kind of a wage increase to our stipend at all.”
“The other thing is we just went through a budget process of cutting $900,000 and scrimping and scraping the bottom of the barrel to even come up with a surplus.”
Goulet even goes as far as saying it’s lunacy to ask for a raise at this point.
As the Chair, he will gain the most, 120 dollars, up to $13,477 a year.
Vice-Chair Jackson will get another 110 dollars and the other Trustees will see an increase of 100 dollars a year.
(Files from George Henderson)