The head of the Kamloops-Thompson School District has declined an annual pay increase, saying if his staff must be abide by the province's net-zero mandate for raises then so shall he.

This is the third time Supt. Terry Sullivan has declined the $4,000 executive annual re-earnable performance-based incentive bonus, which is provided by the B.C. Public School Employers' Association.

"Everyone else is at zero and zero," Sullivan said Friday. "It's just something that I couldn't do in good conscience."

The association set up the bonus for school district executive staff in 2008 and offers it to all of the province's 60 school districts. Kamloops-Thompson school trustees opted in, tying in Sullivan's bonus to the progress of the district's five-year improvement plan.

School district secretary treasurer Kelvin Stretch said the amount of the bonus is roughly equal to 2.5 per cent of the superintendent's base salary.

Sullivan makes $160,000 annually, or $175,000 with taxable benefits. Stretch and Sullivan are the only school district staff eligible to receive the bonus, he said.

"Terry really is the driving force with the long-term plan," Stretch said.

Every year Sullivan provides a report to trustees on the progress made with the district's five-year plan. Based on that report, the school board requests that the association provide the bonus, said Stretch.

Stretch supports Sullivan's decision not to accept the bonus, saying it's tough to accept a bonus when the rest of your staff isn't in a position to receive the same.

School board chair Denise Harper said the bonus comes up annually, just like the trustee stipends, and must be addressed.

"Terry is a very ethical person," she said, adding he hasn't accepted the bonus since she returned to the board. She is in her second, three-year term.

Trustees recently turned down an annual salary increase, saying it wasn't appropriate given the province's zero mandate.