Image: SD33 / All seven members of the Chilliwack school board have received a slight adjustment to their yearly salary pegged to inflation. Chilliwack School District trustees will now earn a base salary of $24,847. The vice chair will receive $26,314, while the board chair earns $28,128. The base salary is about $2,070 per month before taxes. Chilliwack school board members include Teri Westerby (left), Margaret Reid, Richard Procee, board chair Willow Reichelt, Carin Bondar, David Swankey and Heather Maahs. 

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Chilliwack School District

Chilliwack school board trustee base salary now approaches $2,100/month

Sep 11, 2023 | 9:22 AM

CHILLIWACK — All seven members of the Chilliwack school board have received a slight adjustment to their yearly salary pegged to inflation.

In a memo from Secretary-Treasurer Simone Sangster contained within the 177-page board package for Tuesday’s September school board meeting, Chilliwack School District trustees will now earn a base salary of $24,847. The vice chair will receive $26,314, while the board chair earns $28,128. The base salary is about $2,070 per month.

The salary adjustment took effect July 1, 2023, reflecting a 2.8 per cent increase in the Canadian Consumer Price Index for the past 12 months ending June 30, 2023.

In July 2022, trustees began receiving $24,170, while the vice chair’s salary was increased to $25,597, and the board chair saw her salary bumped up to $27,362.

According to Board Policy 190, trustee remuneration will be adjusted annually effective July 1 each year. The adjustment reflects the Canadian Consumer Price Index established for July of each year for the previous 12 months.

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Chilliwack trustee remuneration is in line with other nearby school districts, though considerable time is devoted on their part to committee assignments, regular board meetings, learning sessions, school liaison visits, and email correspondence, not to mention phone calls and texts for a district that has an enrolment of over 14,000 students. They receive a $300 communications stipend twice a year on top of their salary.

With a student population of about 19,200, Abbotsford School District trustees currently receive an annual salary of $25,810, while the vice chair earns $28,400, and the chair receives $32,270. After the October election, their pay will increase to about $29,000, $33,400, and $37,700.

As of 2019, Fraser Cascade School District pays its trustees about $21,500, vice chair $22,500, and board chair $24,500. Its salary increases are also tied to inflation. It covers Agassiz, Hope and the small surrounding communities, and has an enrolment of about 2,200 students.

Other municipal elected officials in Chilliwack make considerably more. Chilliwack city councillors earned a base salary of $46,165.19 for their time and services in 2022, an increase of about 5.1 per cent over their base salaries of $43,898.67 in 2021. Mayor Ken Popove received $125,874.27 in base compensation during 2022, an increase of three per cent over his base 2021 salary of $122,181.

Cultus Lake Park Board commissioners earn a base of about $15,000 a year, but there is additional pay for vice chair or board chair due to their additional responsibilities. Former commissioner and board chair David Renwick received the highest salary of his fellow park board commissioners in 2022 at $21,940.60, of which $1,000 was a communications expense. Renwick elected not to run for reelection in the October 2022 municipal elections. The next highest-paid commissioner was new board chair Kirk Dzaman at $20,536.62. Board chairs are paid a higher amount for more responsibilities. Next up was Darcy Bauer ($16,704.46), who was acclaimed in the October 2022 municipal election along with Dzaman because they had no challengers.