The salaries of the highest earning employees of the Fraser-Cascade School District are now public.
The five highest-earning employees of the district last year were: superintendent Karen Nelson ($163,171), secretary-treasurer Natalie Lowe ($147,853), assistant superintendent Kevin Bird ($140,099), Agassiz Elementary Secondary School principal Patricia (Patsy) Graham ($126,534) and principal of Hope Secondary School Rosalee Floyd ($126,534).
All those who earned over $75,000 last year have their salaries made public in the school district’s statement of financial information (SOFI) for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018. Natalie Lowe presented the document at a Nov. 6 board meeting.
Statement of Financial Information 2017-18 by Ingrid Peacock on Scribd
The highest earning employees of the district received raises in the $6- to $10,000 range from the 2016-17 fiscal year, for example Nelson received a $12,305 raise, Lowe a $7,161 raise and Bird a $12,097 raise.
The highest earning employees expenses were also made public, for example Nelson claimed $13,076 in expenses.
In total there were 75 school district employees earning over $75,000 in the 2017-18 fiscal year, for a total of over $7-million in wages and over $90,000 in expenses claimed.
District looks into seat belts on school buses
Trustee Tom Hendrickson said the district has been ‘hoodwinked’ by the transportation department into believing that seatbelts are not needed on school buses. He raised a recommendation from the operations and facilities committee to look into the issue at the Nov. 6 board meeting.
“There have been a few accidents with buses and they’ve come to the conclusion that kids are safer if they are actually in the seat belt,” he said. “We’ve been hoodwinked by the department of transportation for the last 40 years or 30 years, telling us that those big seats in the front are good enough, you can plow into them and you’re safer. So they’ve been kidding us for all this time.”
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Trustee Ron Johnstone said it is high time the issue is looked into, referenced a video he saw on the news showing crash test dummies in a simulated accident.
“The assumption that all those kids are going to be sitting lock stock in their seats, looking forward, is definitely not going to happen,” he said.
“The kids they want to move, they’re going to get up, they’re going to lean over and talk to their friends.”
The board voted unanimously to look into the issue.
Marv Cope gets his way
Earlier this summer, the late Marv Cope was honoured with an outdoor classroom in his name. The community of Hope now also has a road leading towards the outdoor classroom named after him.
The District of Hope council formally named the portion of School Road that runs from Flood-Hope Road to Silver Creek Elementary School Marv Cope Way, after the school district advocated for the name change this summer.
RELATED: School’s out! Silver Creek opens outdoor learning space
Cope, who passed away in March 2017 after a battle with cancer, spent 35 years teaching in the school district. From starting his career at Coquihalla Elementary School, he became a principal at Silver Creek Elementary School at the age of 26. After retiring he served five terms as a school board trustee.
“They also changed it not to Marv Cope Road or Marv Cope Avenue, but Marv Cope Way. Which I think he’d love, to have his own way,” board chair Linda Kerr said, to laughter from the trustees.
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