Former principal, school executive gave themselves $280K in raises: lawsuit

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This article was published 16/11/2023 (688 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE former principal of Southeast Collegiate and another executive member are being sued for giving themselves thousands of dollars in unapproved raises multiple times.

In a statement of claim filed in Manitoba Court of King’s Bench last week, Southeast Collegiate is claiming Sheryl McCorrister, who had been principal of the school since August 2002, and Marlene Waterston, its director of operations and human resources from 2009 until earlier this year, took a total of $283,510 in salary increases between 2018 and 2022 that weren’t approved by the school’s board of directors.

“The board of directors of SEC were responsible for authorizing changes to the salaries of SEC employees,” the lawsuit says. “The defendants were responsible for administering salaries and increases to the salaries of SEC employees.

“At no time, nor in any event, were the salary increases and payments to Ms. Waterston and Ms. McCorrister authorized by the board of directors.”

The school was created in Winnipeg to educate First Nations high school students from some of Indigenous communities on the east side of Lake Winnipeg, several of which didn’t have high schools, including Little Grand Rapids, Bloodvein First Nation and Pauingassi First Nation.

Students board at the former Nazarene College site in the Waverley West area.

Board chairman Geoff Bushie of Hollow Water First Nation could not be reached. A spokesperson for the Southeast Resource Development Council, which helped create the school in 1995, declined to comment, as did the school’s lawyer, Faron Trippier.

Neither McCorrister nor Waterston could be reached.

In the court documents, SEC alleges in its most recent employment contracts from September 2020 that McCorrister’s annual salary was $106,090, and Waterston’s was $100,785.

The lawsuit claims that by taking unauthorized salary increases “for personal use and benefit,” the two employees “unjustly enriched themselves.”

It says SEC “has suffered a loss of $283,510 which SEC has been unable to put toward programming or equipment for its students.”

The school is seeking reimbursement of the unauthorized funds, legal costs and damages for unjust enrichment.

No statements of defence have been filed and the allegations have not be proven in court.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca