Payroll reveal: 18 school staff cleared $200K

Chief superintendents and a divisional kookum were among 18 public school board employees in Winnipeg who earned more than $200,000 last year.

New salary compensation reports reveal the top-paid teacher in the city was in charge of Manitoba’s most populated school board, while the group of trustees with the largest cumulative paycheque was based in St. Vital.

New salary compensation reports reveal the Winnipeg School Division’s Matt Henderson was the highest-paid chief executive officer of his kind. In 2025, Henderson’s salary was $292,473.

Sandra Herbst, who oversees the River East Transcona School Division, and the Louis Riel School Division’s Christian Michalik each earned $291,203.

The latter’s board of trustees was the highest paid of all the nine-seat governance boards in Winnipeg. Overall, Louis Riel trustees received $258,817 — $50,000 more than the lowest-paid group based in St. James-Assiniboia.

“When you consider the vast array of needs that the public education is meeting in 2026 for Manitoba communities, both urban and rural, the days of only reading, writing and arithmetic are so far away,” said Alan Campbell, director of advocacy and public affairs for the Manitoba School Boards Association.

Campbell said boards come up with salaries based on leadership responsibilities, workforce size, student population, geography, building roster and pay in comparable public- and private-sector roles.

Board offices run daily operations for multiple schools, in addition to organizing nutrition, health and well-being programs and social services, the veteran trustee noted.

Manitoba school divisions are required to publish earnings and job titles of staff who make $85,000 or more within six months of the end of every calendar year.

The Winnipeg School Division had not uploaded its report as of Thursday afternoon, but it was made available to the Free Press upon request.

WSD, the largest division, with the full-time equivalent of 27,795 students and 4,841 employees, has the longest list — a 49-page document — of earners who met that threshold in 2025.

Seven members of its workforce, in addition to Henderson, earned upwards of $200,000 last year.

The highest-paid employees include chief financial officer Clayton Bodkyn, division kookum Marsha Missyabit and assistant superintendents Rob Riel, Lorelei Bunkowsky, Mohammad Rezai, Julie Smerchanski and Shelley Warkentin.

The divisional kookum, a position that is in the company with traditional assistant superintendent roles whose portfolios include professional learning, student-centred services and Indigenous education, “has the responsibility to guide, support and model the good life.”

In River East Transcona, the salaries of secretary treasurer Elise Downey and assistant superintendents Jason Drysdale and Karen Boyd surpassed $200,000.

The managers in charge of budgeting in Seven Oaks and Louis Riel, Jennifer West and Jamie Rudnicki, were in that category.

Pembina Trails and St. James-Assiniboia’s top leaders, Shelley Amos and Jenness Moffatt were solo in their divisions, with respective salaries of $220,221 and $209,549.

Superintendent earnings were in the same range as the city’s director of water and waste, transit director and chief of the fire and paramedic service last year.

Henderson, Herbst, Michalik and Seven Oaks superintendent Tony Kreml all out-earned Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham, who took home $231,969 in 2025.

“It’s important that that salary range is competitive with those with comparable responsibility in other areas of the public sector and the private sector,” said Campbell, of the school boards association.

(He recently left a six-figure role in Pembina Trails; last year Campbell earned $145,490 as its director of transportation.)

Education Minister Tracy Schmidt took home $153,127 during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025. The province releases public compensation data six months after the fiscal year ends.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca