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LETTER: SD51 should make salaries transparent

The elections have come and gone. As the dust settles the school trustee positions are now filled and the work begins.

Editor:

The elections have come and gone. As the dust settles the school trustee positions are now filled and the work begins.

One issue that come up through the candidate forums was the need for improved transparency and inclusiveness.

We can never achieve 100 per cent transparency as there is always a need for privacy. However, privacy should trump transparency only in a very few cases.

On Dec. 5, there was an inaugural meeting of the board of education in Grand Forks, B.C. After reviewing the agenda on the board website, I cross-referenced the agenda with the other three Kootenay district school board inaugural meeting agendas.

One thing that caught my attention on the school district #20 agenda was a list of salaries on the board chair, vice chair and trustees, along with reimbursement rates for food and mileage, plus professional development allocations.

Now, back to the SD51 inaugural meeting agenda: there were not any references to trustee remuneration (pay) which takes us back to the issue of transparency.

If the decision on remuneration was done in a closed meeting, you will received a simple reply that meets the intent of the law, but not the spirit of the law in the School Act.

I point this out as an issue of lack of transparency. I would invite the board to make a public record of their remuneration.

Val Rich, Grand Forks