Living Sky chair, vice-chair re-elected

Ken Arsenault has been re-elected by acclamation as chair of the Living Sky School Division board of education.

At its organizational meeting Wednesday of last week, the board also re-elected vice-chair Ronna Pethick by acclamation.

The meeting also included a discussion about indemnities, and a motion to increase indemnities to the board by 1.5 per cent was passed five votes to four.

But the board hasn't finished looking at how much it should be making. Once all the school divisions of the province have submitted their annual reports to the Saskatchewan government, due by the end of November, a comparison can be made to the dollars other boards of education receive.

Although the amounts can be compared, Pethick said there really isn't a comparison, because each division is so different.

"We have to decide ourselves," she said.

The board members are paid monthly, for an annual amount of $12,408.71, with an additional $2,000 for the chair.

Being paid on an annual basis, rather than per meeting, has been in place since before the amalgamation that created Living Sky School Division. A decision was made many years ago not to be paid by the meeting, said long time trustees Bob Foreman and Ron Kowalchuk.

Kowalchuk said the annual pay made things more fair and balanced, and it cut down on meetings "dragging on."

He made the motion to increase the pay by 1.5 per cent saying it should be tied into something, such as the 1.5 per cent increase in the budget for instruction and support staff.

If it isn't tied in, he said, and the board waits two or three years to increase it, said Kowalchuk, then the public says, "they're giving themselves a big raise."

Board member Garth Link wasn't happy to vote on remuneration without more information.

"To make a decision on what we're going to do on the basis of no comparison to me makes no sense," he sad.

However, Pethick said, "Every division is different. There is no comparison."

Pethick, who serves as central constituency representative for the Saskatchewan School Boards Association executive, said, "You're not ever going to be able to compare. When you talk to board members around the province, it's all over the map."

Board members also looked at other expenses at the organizational meeting. Their mileage rate is $41.25 and meals away from home are $8 for breakfast, $14 for lunch, $19 for dinner to a maximum of $41 per day, without receipts. The board voted to leave these amounts where they were.