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“Thank you for bringing this to our attention.”

The June 12 motions — passed during a special meeting at a hotel in Lethbridge and contained in minutes only approved last April after the province confirmed a five-year extension of Gietz’s contract — gave the chief superintendent a one per cent bonus for the prior year and a one per cent increase for the coming 12 months.

The board’s financial statements show Gietz earned $270,272 in salary and benefits last year, a nearly 25 per cent increase from his compensation two years earlier.

The trustees’ resolutions on June 12 also gave three associate superintendents a retroactive pay increase to $170,000 for the previous year and a further hike to $175,000 for the coming 12 months, subject to Gietz’s blessing.

They also signed off on a maximum one per cent pay hike for those in director positions at head office, again subject to the chief superintendent’s approval.

Deitz did not answer questions on the incremental cost to the board of the pay increases to top officials.

But the Herald’s analysis of the board’s financial statements shows that over the last two years the per-position cost of salaries and benefits for Palliser’s head office staff — excluding the chief superintendent, corporate treasurer and corporate secretary jobs — has increased nearly 30 per cent as the board’s motions took effect.

Despite the pay hikes, Palliser’s numbers also show overall spending on board administration has declined slightly over the last two years and remained just inside Alberta Education’s limit of 3.6 per cent on a 2014-15 budget of just over $81 million.