Edmonton Catholic board chief highest paid in province
The superintendent of Edmonton Catholic Schools, Joan Carr, remains the highest paid school district leader in the province, newly published data show.
Carr, who has spent 11 years at the helm of the province’s fourthlargest school district, received $415,905 in salary and benefits in 2015-16, according to Alberta Education’s recently released annual report.
Her salary is at the highest level due to her long service in the post and market conditions at the time her contract was negotiated five years ago, Edmonton Catholic school board chairwoman Laura Thibert said in written statement. “I am in awe of Joan’s leadership style and her commitment to Catholic education,” Thibert said.
At a heated meeting last January, the school board narrowly voted 4 to 3 to extend Carr’s contract to August 2018.
Trustee John Acheson said in January it was time for a new superintendent to navigate the district through an impending new K-12 curriculum and enrolment growth that is taxing the capacity of school buildings.
At the time, trustee Patricia Grell said board colleague Larry Kowalczyk was in a conflict of interest when he voted in favour of Carr’s contract because Kowalczyk’s wife is a school principal who reports to Carr.
The school district’s three-year graduation rate has increased under Carr’s tenure, Thibert said, adding the district has been named one of Alberta’s top 70 employers for two consecutive years. The Canadian Association of School System Administrators named Carr national superintendent of the year in 2016.
PARTING GIFTS
Meanwhile, two Alberta school superintendents took home sixfigure severance payments last year, according to the report, driving up leadership costs in two small school divisions.
In Grande Prairie, past public school district superintendent CarolAnn MacDonald left in December 2015 with $249,022 in severance and retirement allowance on top of her salary. At the time, the board said it had decided a few days earlier to end her employment.
MacDonald, who left the division with eight months remaining in her five-year-contract, is now suing the Grande Prairie public school board for $1.8 million and the board is counter-suing her. Both parties are accusing the other of acting improperly, and MacDonald claims the board mis represented the terms of the contract when they offered her the job. None of the allegations has been proven in court.