Kamloops-Thompson school trustee Jodhbir Kang called for his colleagues to suspend their salaries until the end of the 2025/2026 school year.

Image Credit: Kamloops-Thompson School District

A Kamloops school board trustee is leaving his stipend behind as area schools are facing budget pressures.

Trustee Jo Kang asked his colleagues to join him in donating their income, almost $30,000 per year each, back to the district. His effort largely fell flat.

"My thing was about making noise and making a statement out in the public so the province realizes they're underfunding," Kang told iNFOnews.ca.

The school district is poised to cut dozens of jobs to deal with a nearly $6 million shortfall. A trustee's salary is a drop in the bucket, but he said it's about making a statement.

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"School boards are literally doing whatever they can from the top down, and it's not just staff being affected, but boards are looking at all possible options," Kang said.

The Kamloops-Thompson school district is one of many across the province forced to make cuts as they blame a lack of provincial funds for the shortfalls. For Kamloops area schools, it means dozens of teaching and support staff jobs will be cut because districts cannot run deficits.

Kang announced his motion to call on trustees to forgo their stipends ahead of an April 28 meeting that would finalize the $251 million budget. When the meeting came, he was told the board couldn't vote on such a proposal.

"As I said, that's against (board policy). What you could do, say you were feeling compelled to donate your stipend and you wanted that reported back on... if you were looking to your peers to support you in that motion, that is something we could certainly entertain," board chair Heather Grieve said at the meeting.

Grieve said the district got legal advice and heard board policy wouldn't allow them to set their stipends to $0. Instead, they could each ask the district's secretary-treasurer to donate the money back and also to report it publicly.

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Vice chair Rhonda Kershaw then offered to support Kang if he offered a motion that only he donate his wage.

None of the eight other trustees offered to forgo their stipend with Kang, but one voiced concern for the way the debate panned out.

"I kind of hate to see how this all became so public," trustee Cole Hickson said. "I just feel like the way we responded to the motion was... more than what the motion put forward."

He added that he considered donating his own stipend back to the district, but hadn't planned to make it "a public display."

Ultimately there was no vote, but Kang told iNFOnews.ca he asked school district staff to donate his own stipend back for the entire upcoming year. He didn't know whether any other trustees opted to join him.

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