Sunday, January 8, 2012

Superintendent of Greater Victoria received 10% wage increase

The Public Service Employers' Council (PSEC) recently released the public disclosure of executive compensation for school districts. This comes shortly after we learned in the media that the Greater Victoria Board of Education secretly renewed the contracts of both the Superintendent and the Secretary Treasurer at the last meeting before the November elections when a new Board came into office.

You can find the public disclosure here: http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/psec/disclosuredocs/sddisclosures11/sd61_11.pdf

Given the government's steadfast insistence that teacher do not deserve to even keep up with inflation, never mind catch up with our colleagues in the rest of Canada, it is interesting to see the 10% wage increase (over one year) for our Superintendent.

In 2009/10, Superintendent John Gaiptman received a base salary of $158, 711. In 2010/11 he received a base salary of $175, 073. This is an increase of $16, 362, or just above 10%.

There is some complicated formula relating to averages across BC, but I was interested to read that although Greater Victoria ranks 7th in size, the Superitendent's salary and benefits rank 4th in BC. (See: http://www.langleytimes.com/news/136677488.html)

In addition to this base salary, he receives another $32, 730 in benefits. Much of this is pension, but there are some other items included, such as "all reasonable expenses" for professional development, a home computer,  a professional association dues. He also gets a membership to a Health Club.

Let's compare this to teachers in Greater Victoria. We received a 2% increase between 2009/10 and 2010/11 and we received a 0% increase this fall. (I don't know what Mr. Gaiptman received this fall, as the disclosure from PSEC comes at the end of the year). Teachers in Greater Victoria receive $87 per year for professional development - a number that has not changed since 1992. We have to pay our professional dues ourselves. We do not get a membership to a Health Club. For most teachers, in "category 5" with 5 years of university education, the starting salary is $48, 626 and after ten years of full time experience, the top salary is $74, 353.

9 comments:

  1. And what does a superintendent do that is worth this much. And there are even worse examples where there are a number of them earning $200k+ and have cars as perks. What?

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  2. A health club? Students are falling between the cracks and the superintendent gets a membership to take care of himself? What about meeting the needs of students in his school district?

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  3. Did you notice that some superintendents didn't take their vacation and instead got paid out up to $15K extra!
    What a contract. Maybe they should be forced to take or loose out and save the system. It also seems as a way for superintendents to further increase their wages.

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  4. And his benefits have been re-negotiated since 1993. Teachers have been suffering with antiquated extended health and dental benefits since the last century! When was the last time anyone got a pair of glasses for $150? Yah, I thought so.

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  5. Tara, a colleague says this is not true and Gaiptman has refused the raise.

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  6. Tara, a colleague says this is not true and Gaiptman has refused the raise.

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  7. No, as per the public disclosure linked to above, this is the correct amount that he was paid last school year. The public disclosure is signed by the chair of the board and the information would be included in the audit. Whoever told you this should check their facts. You can direct them to the public disclosure which is hosted on the government of BC website.

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  8. For convenience, the public disclosure link is http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/psec/disclosure/disclosure10-11.htm One item I found to be rather ironic is that BCPSEA apparently has no problem making use of reference salaries in Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan fro Executive positions but dismisses the same references when considering teacher salaries.

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  9. Hey Tara, just reread and realized you've already posted the link. Sorry. On the plus side, you shouldn't have to wait for PSEC to check on current salaries. According to the Public Sector Employers Act, executive contracts are public documents and must be available either on the employer's website or in hard copy at the employer's office for public review.

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