Paying attention to school board trustee pay

It’s been nearly 30 years since Ontario amalgamated school boards down to 72 from 124, creating our huge local Trillium Lakelands DSB and Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic DSB. No longer able to levy taxes for education, trustees also were soon stripped of most other meaningful powers.

Today’s trustee honoraria — the payments can’t be described even charitably as a salary — reflect those curtailed responsibilities. For their work in building relationships with their assigned group of schools at things like graduations and special events, as well as strategic planning, budget review and more at regular meetings, trustees receive a base amount of $5,900 per year. That’s $490 a month.

According to provincial legislation, an additional enrolment amount is arrived at by (brace yourself)  “multiplying the percentage determined by the board for the year under clause 4 (1) (c) or subsection 4 (2) or (3), as the case may be, by the amount determined for the member under subsection (2), (3) or (4), as the case may be. O. Reg. 163/07, s. 4 (1).”

Some boards add a nominal per-meeting amount and a top-up for trustees travelling longer distances. The chair and vice-chair also receive a bit more. Nobody gets rich from sitting on a school board.

So how much do our local trustees actually receive every year? That’s exactly what we tried to find out recently as part of our look at salaries for elected officials.

A representative from PVNCC responded in less than an hour with a document that clearly set out all the calculations and amounts. It even included a chart listing how much trustees ($9,611), vice-chair ($12,483) and chair ($15,354) were paid. (Attendance and distance amounts were zero.)

The public board was another story. The TLDSB website lists a total amount for trustee remuneration in its budget, and a report detailing the amount each trustee was reimbursed for expenses including internet, cell phone, travel and professional development.

In response to our request for a compensation figure, though, a TLDSB representative referred us to the provincial legislation. The section quoted a few paragraphs back indicates that no ordinary mortal could make that calculation. For anything else, we were told, we’d have to submit a freedom of information request.

In comparison with the ready transparency of PVNCC, the public board’s attitude is incomprehensible. We admire and appreciate the largely thankless work trustees do. The minimal compensation they receive is determined at a public meeting; there is no reason to make it so difficult for the public to know the amount.