Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Board Compensation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Gresham-Barlow board debates optional stipends for directors, asks staff to research legal limits
Summary
Directors discussed a draft policy allowing optional monthly stipends for board members, citing equity and recruitment benefits but expressing concern about taking dollars from classrooms. Staff will research retroactivity and statutory limits and bring options to a future work session or the April business meeting.
Gresham — The Gresham-Barlow School District board discussed a draft policy on board stipends at its March 12 work session, weighing whether to offer optional monthly payments that directors could accept or decline.
Staff member Don told the board the draft follows guidance from the Oregon School Boards Association and mirrors approaches other districts have used. He said Portland handled stipends by voting position-by-position and having the occupant of a position recuse when their own position’s stipend was under consideration.
Directors split between two concerns: making board service accessible for people who cannot absorb the time and child-care costs of meetings, and avoiding diverting funds from classrooms. “I look at it in some respects as we are, I believe, the only elected officials who do not receive compensation for the time that we put into the job,” one director said, noting training and conference attendance create out-of-pocket costs. Another director said they would prefer not to take dollars from students’ classrooms while budgets are constrained.
Practical questions included tax and payroll treatment: staff said stipends would be run through payroll and subject to reporting and taxes. Board members asked whether a stipend approval could be retroactive; staff said policy language and statute appear to allow retroactivity in some cases but that John (staff) would research and report back.
Directors also referenced a statutory maximum discussed during the meeting and asked staff to confirm the current legal cap and any inflation adjustments. The group asked for a follow-up that would include an administrative regulation (AR) clarifying mileage, conference approval and whether stipend calculation should be tied to the fiscal year.
Next steps: the board agreed to continue discussion at the next work session and asked staff to bring legal research on retroactivity, a proposed resolution/AR and examples from other districts ahead of an April business meeting.
The chair said staff would prepare findings and that the board will decide how to proceed after receiving statutory and procedural guidance.
