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TRUSTEES WANT EXTRA PAY FOR MEETING ATTENDANCE

$50 SUPPLEMENT A WAY TO HELP FIX LOW TRUSTEE PAY, BOARD CHAIR SAYS

RICHARD LEITNER rleitner@hamiltonnews.com

Trustees elected to Hamilton's public school board in the Oct. 24 municipal election may get an extra $50 for attending committees mandated by the Education Act.

The recommendation, set to go to the current board's Oct. 3 board meeting, proposes to pay the attendance amount for meetings of the audit, parent involvement, supervised alternative learning and special education advisory committees. If approved, the payments would take effect for the incoming board of trustees when it takes office in December.

Board chair Dawn Danko pushed for the change to an existing honorarium policy, which states: "Trustees have elected not to pay this component, noting that attendance at committee is considered part of their trustee responsibilities."

But Danko said paying trustees the attendance

amount "is an important step we should take given the low compensation that they receive." The Ward 7 trustee noted, the extra payouts won't apply to other standing committees that aren't required by the Education Act, like those dealing with finance and facilities, policy, program and human resources.

"It may help with the number of people who put their name forward for committees," Danko said at the Sept. 14 online policy committee meeting. "Hopefully they wouldn't do it just for these (mandated) committees, but we know that we need to distribute the work across the board, and when we do that well, it makes this job work better for everyone."

Vice-chair Becky Buck, who is trustee for Ward 8 and 14, called the extra payouts "a starting spot," even if they only apply to four committees. "Particularly in election season, how little trustees make is actually possibly a barrier to some who might have desired to enter the race for trustee," she said. "This is just one small way that we can help offset that for future boards."

The previous board of trustees set the compensation for the current term based on a Ministry of Education formula, which provides a base pay of $5,900 and then adds an amount based on enrolment. For trustees, that works out to $13,730 per year. The chair and vice-chair get additional base pay and enrolment amounts, earning $21,191 and $17,460 respectively.

Policy committee chair Maria Felix Miller agreed the extra attendance payments will help encourage participation on committees.

"I don't want the impression that a handful of committees are in any way superior to all the other committees where we do a lot of very important work," Miller said.

"I think the reality is that if there is there's any extra compensation for the amount of work that trustees are taking on, then we should be maximizing that," she said. "Hopefully that means that at the table there will be more volunteers who are able, as a result, to perhaps free up some of their time. It would be really nice to have a wider set of trustees at each of these committees."

While she didn't speak to the issue, Ward 6 trustee Kathy Archer also supported the extra payments, making the policy committee's recommendation unanimous.

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2022-09-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-09-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://communitynews.pressreader.com/article/281655373952024

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