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4- The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday October 21, 2006 Board left scrambling to find New Appointments funds for trustee pay hikes Ian Oliver, Publisher, The Hamilton Spectator, is pleased to make the following announcement: By Tim Whitnell SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER MONTAGUE Kelly Montague Vice-President, Advertising It is my pleasure to announce the appointment of Kelly Montague as Vice-President, Advertising who joined us on September 26, 2006. Kelly will be building on a very successful career in the newspaper industry in which she has held various sales and management positions with Metroland, most recently as the Director of Advertising for The Oakville Beaver. Kelly has proven ability in building effective sales and support teams that delivered impressive results. Kelly has family roots in Hamilton and is also a graduate of McMaster University where she received her BA and then went on to further her education at Sheridan College where she received her Advertising diploma. Kelly is a proven innovative, strategic and results-oriented leader who will be a great asset to The Hamilton Spectator as we continue the development of our customer focused sales team. I am very pleased to welcome Kelly to the senior management team of The Hamilton Spectator. New information about the way the Ministry of Education will fund raises and retroactive pay for all trustees in Ontario has left Halton's public board with increased costs to last year's budget and the current one. The board has the challenge of finding more than $90,000 in extra costs between the two budgets as a result of the impact of recently approved trustee salary hikes and retroactive pay. The breakdown of the budget pressures is $44,841, an amount that represents half of the cost of retroactive pay, for the 2005-06 school year. The other cost is $46,618, half of the amount to cover trustee pay increases; it will be added to the current-year budget. Halton District School Board superintendent Steven Parfeniuk said the ministry informed the board Oct. 13 that it plans to foot 50 per cent of the costs for both the retroactive portion and the raises that trustees voted themselves Oct. 4. He said previous dialogue with the province had led him to believe the board would be on the hook for retroactive pay for the board's 11 trustees but felt confident the ministry would pay for all of the raise they will get this year. "The new guidelines around trustee remuneration were set out by the province (and shaped by a six-person citizens' committee) so from my perspective it needs to reconsider" 100 per cent coverage, he said. To that end he noted the Council of Superintendents of Business of Ontario is working with the province to try to get confirmation whether additional monies will flow to school boards. "They meet regularly with ministry staff and they'll be outlining their concerns with the 50 per cent (salary) funding." Parfeniuk said board administrative staff is still finalizing figures for last year's budget (200506). "It's an additional cost pressure on our year-end positions," he said of the retro pay and pay raise increases. "We did budget for a contingency fund and we will be taking a budget report to trustees in January," said Parfeniuk, noting the emergency fund sits at about $500,000. By January he said there could be other costs -- unforeseen or anticipated -- that might put increased pressure on staff and trustees to deal with sooner rather than later. For now though Parfeniuk said the board is getting some relief in the area of utilities. "The good thing is the price of electricity is down and natural gas prices have stabilized. " Director of communications for the Ministry of Education Valerie Poulin told the Beaver Thursday it will cover 50 per cent of the raises of trustees on an "ongoing" basis, meaning not only for the current school year but for the years beyond as well. Parfeniuk said he'll take a cautious approach with such a statement and will only deal with the issue on a year-by-year basis. New provincial regulations made it possible for boards to dramatically increase the annual stipend for subsequent boards, and also to award back pay. Trustees each get $8,153 in back pay for the period Sept. 1, 2005 to Sept. 1, 2006. As well, each gets $1,882 tacked on to their new monthly pay, spread out from September through November 2006, as part of the entire 15month retroactive period. EXPERIENCE EVERYTHING ORLANDO HAS TO OFFER EVEN BEFORE YOU ARRIVE. Visit www.orlandoinfo.com/canada and save up to $500* on your next Orlando vacation. Visit Orlando's only official web site and order your FREE vacation planning kit including an Orlando Preferred Visitor MagicardTM with up to $500 in savings. Learn about theme parks, golf outings, spa retreats, shopping extravaganzas, and more. Orlando is the destination that takes your imagination to new heights. 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