Quesnel’s Board of Education unanimously approved an 8.74 percent increase at Wednesday night’s monthly meeting.
Board Chair Tony Goulet says the increase is in line with what their unions, CUPE and the Quesnel District Teachers Association, got.
“Before this past agreement they got 3.24 percent in 2022, and both groups are now getting another 5.5 in 2023, so that’s the 8.74 percent.”
Goulet says the feeling was that after years of taking zero or modest increases, they needed to catch-up a bit.
“It’s always a tough conversation. Sometimes it’s hard when the comments are made give yourself a raise, it’s a weird scenario but it comes up every year right.  If we don’t do anything and we just stay at the same rate, what happens is if you want to attract and get people to run for positions there has to be some incentive.”
The Board took a 0 percent increase in 2022, 2 percent in 2021, 1.875 percent in 2020, another 0 in 2019, 2 percent in 2018 and 1.9 in 2017.
Goulet says they are still at the lower end when it comes to other districts in the province.
“We’re lower, especially if you look at some Districts in the Lower Mainland. They get quite a bit, it’s almost like a full-time job especially the bigger districts. It’s all dependent on the enrollment right. We’re towards the bottom but not quite the bottom.”
The Board Chair will see his stipend go up by 13-hundred 63 dollars to $16,958.
The Vice-Chair will make $15,640 on July 1st, a bump of 12-hundred 57 dollars and the rest of the Trustees will get a raise of around 11-hundred 51 dollars to $14,321.