School board trustees in Chilliwack got a bit of a pay raise over the summer, in keeping with the Canadian Consumer Price Index.
In February, trustees voted in favour of setting up annual adjustments to stay in line with the CPI, rather than voting for actual remuneration raises.
So, on July 1, with the CPI 1.5% higher, each trustee's renumeration rate rose from $18,360 to $18,636. Vice chair and chair also can receive allowances. Those allowances have risen from $918 to $932 for vice chair, and $1,836 to $1,864 for chair.
At the time of voting for the annual adjustments, both Trustees Paul McManus and Walt Krahn voted against it.
"I don’t have any issue giving ourselves a raise, but I don’t feel comfortable getting and annual increase," McManus said.
While this year brought an increase to the trustee's remuneration, the CPI is not constantly rising. There could be years that trustees' remuneration will see a dip, or even stay the same.
While they disagreed on keeping with the CPI back in February, the board voted unanimously for a 2 per cent increase. Prior to that, it had been seven years since the board had a raise.
The information on this year's 1.5 per cent increase will be brought forward to the school board at the Oct. 4 meeting.