YELLOWKNIFE -Yellowknife Catholic School trustees have given themselves a raise to match the one the YK Education District No. 1 board gave itself a couple of months ago.

Grade 11 student Peter Boggis, standing, retells some of his experiences at Vimy Ridge. At front, teacher Loralea Wark sits with student Kathleen O'Brien who was moved to tears when she spoke about Vimy Ridge. - Jessica Klinkenberg/NNSL photo

Trustees went to $7,500 per annum from $5,000.

The vice-chair's position went to $8,500 per annum and the chair will see a raise to $10,000 from $7,500 a year.

"I think that for all intent and purpose we are volunteers," said trustee Brian Nagel, who put forward the motion for the raise.

Nagel added that the raise also reflects the amount of time that board members put into their work as trustees.

"The research that I did showed that we were, maybe, 30 per cent lower (than school boards in the south)," Nagel said.

Student support review report both good and bad

A student support review was submitted to Catholic trustees Tuesday night that addresses some of the challenges and strengths faced by student support staff.

One of those challenges is truancy by students. Wanda Lyons, who helped put the review together, had a few recommendations to help support staff. One of which was that YCS should hire a full-time psychologist.

"To hire a professional education psychologist you aren't going to get away with anything under $100,000," said Kern Von Hagen, superintendent of YCS.

"We have been down this path before about four years ago," he added, saying that the psychologist hired at the time was not the best fit for the school district.

Von Hagen said, overall, he was pleased with the report's recommendations.

"This will be a three-year action plan."

Budget up for public consumption

YCS is inviting the public to review their 2007-2008 budget at a meeting to be held at their central services office, April 26 at 7 p.m.

"We give a picture of where we're at, where we're thinking we're going with spending our dollars," Von Hagen said.

Von Hagen said he is inviting both questions and suggestions for potential changes.

Von Hagen added that if people had any questions after the budget after the meeting, there is still time because it will take a month to finalize the budget.