Financial documents show that the superintendent for the Surrey School District makes more than half a million dollars a year.
Surrey is the largest school district in B.C., with more than 83,000 children enrolled. However, it has struggled recently with insufficient classrooms and support, leading to some programs being cut.
The Executive Compensation Disclosure Report for 2024 to 2025 shows that Supt. Mark Pearmain’s compensation was $527,000 last year, including salary and benefits.
“For context, that’s twice as much as Premier David Eby is paid to run an entire province,” Carson Binda with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation told Global News.
“It’s far more than Prime Minister Mark Carney takes home at the end of the year.”
Deputy Supt. Andrew Holland made $422,000 and HR executive director Linda Radomski was paid $316,000.
Last May, parents and educators in Surrey launched a public campaign to pressure the government over what they say is chronic underfunding in the district.
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The campaign, dubbed “Surrey Students Deserve Better,” urged parents to directly contact their MLAs to press for increased funding and more support for students with special needs.
The campaign argued that the Surrey School District suffered from shortages of education assistants and basic supplies, outdated technology and cuts to popular arts programs.
Tammy Murphy, president of CUPE 728, which represents district support staff, pointed to reductions in the StrongStart program and learning centre closures as examples.
She also pointed out the number of executives in the district.
“We’ve got seven assistant superintendents,” she said at the time.
“They keep increasing those numbers while the kids at the bottom are hurting. We’ve got managers for managers. They’re hiring a manager to manage a manager. We’re getting more people in doing jobs that aren’t supporting kids.”
B.C.’s education minister did not answer questions about salaries on Thursday.
“This is a local level, these are the questions that should be directly asked to the school board and the school board chair on what their views are around their local compensation,” Minister Lisa Beare said.
But critics say the sky-high salaries are not acceptable.
“The same school district gave its senior executives pay raises of 24 to 26 per cent last year while also laying off 50 education assistants,” Binda said.
“Those are folks in the classroom helping teachers and helping students get access to quality education.”
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