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SD73 board chairwoman wants answer on spending freeze

Harper notes in her letter the ministry is predicting a provincial-budget surplus of $879 million

Kamloops This Week

Kamloops-Thompson school board chair Denise Harper wants an answer from the provincial government.

It’s a question she has asked often, she told trustees at their meeting on Monday, March 30, dating back to last November.

Simply put, Harper wants to know when the ministry of finance will lift the freeze it put into place in 2012 on the compensation that can be paid to excluded and exempt school-board staff.

Harper notes in her letter the ministry is predicting a provincial-budget surplus of $879 million.

“May we then assume that we can anticipate a lifting of the compensation freeze?” she asked in her letter.

The freeze created a challenge for School District 73 in its search for a successor to retired superintendent Terry Sullivan.

Trustees also received a notice of motion to amend their corporate sponsorships and donations policy.

 

The change would address employee-level sponsorships, requiring them to report any gifts they receive in conference packages to their principal or supervisor, who will decide if the gifts will benefit the school system or if the employees can keep them.