Left In Lowell

School Committee and Pay Raises

by Mimi at 11:10 pm.

This past Wednesday (June 11), the Lowell Sun editorial had a scathing denunciation of the School Committee’s consideration of a major salary adjustment for the four Lowell Public School Assistant Superintendents as well as “pay increases [that averages out to] 11 percent to 10 department heads and supervisors.”

However, the following day in an article written by the Sun’s school issues reporter, Jennifer Myers, there is an explanation why the department heads and supervisors are getting this type of raise:

Superintendent of Schools Karla Brooks Baehr said the increase is due to a number of factors, the biggest of which is a reclassification of the positions that occurred during collective-bargaining negotiations last fall.

Also, the current contract took two years to settle. Therefore, the last actual salary figures were included in the fiscal year 2006 budget. The fiscal year 2007 and 2008 budgets included 1 percent increases and did not include step and years-of-service changes. However, the contract was eventually settled at a 2 percent increase.

‘You need to go back to fiscal year 2006 and see it as a three-year raise,’ Baehr said

But the issue of the pay raise for the 4 Assistant Superintendents does not fall into that category. It is a bit more complicated. And the newspaper has added to the confusion by not just focusing on the figures presented in the FY 2009 proposed budget but accusing the School Committee of “negotiating behind closed doors to give a 7 percent annual pay raise to each of Lowell’s four assistant superintendents, including one whose contract doesn’t expire for another two years.”

That accusation was repeated again in this morning’s Column: “the board’s (School Committee) secret negotiations to hand out double-digit raises to 14 School Department administrators, department heads and supervisors. The board was also secretly planning to break a contract that still had two years to run to give an assistant superintendent a higher salary to match that of two of her colleagues whose contacts are expiring on June 20.”

What I am missing? I do not understand the charge of “secret negotiations” levied against the School Committee. First, the FY 2009 budget is on line and those proposed salary figures are clearly listed in the as such; second, the issue of the raise for the 14 School Department heads was explained in the June 13th Meyer’s article (see the link above). Also, the Column states “The embarrassing story broke the day after member (School Committeewoman) Jackie Doherty appeared before the (City) council seeking $212,000 in additional funding for schools.” No, the story Four Lowell assistant superintendents in line for pay raises “broke” in the Sun on Monday morning. Furthermore, that articled ends with this sentence “ [School Committeman Jim] Leary said the confidential negotiations are ongoing, and a final vote is anticipated at the committee’s meeting of July 16.”

However, here is where I agree with the editorial position of the Sun, the proposed salary adjustments are too high. Why give theses four individuals an 6.5 – 8 % pay raise (FY 08 budget vs FY 09 proposed budget); why not give them the same percentage as the principals, assistant principals, teachers. Even if we were experiencing economic prosperity, which we are not, why give these four a higher increase than others?

I do not know the political motivations of the unidentified individual(s) who have brought a confidential process prematurely into a public forum. Nothing has been decided yet and yes, this contract like all others will be brought to the SC floor in a public meeting for a final vote. We will be watching.

[Filed under Local politics, School Committee] [link]

13 Responses to “School Committee and Pay Raises”

Kpem Says:
June 16th, 2008 at 7:52 am
These numbers are too high and I completely agree with you that they should be in line with the principals, assistant principals, teachers. This is just another case like so many others in the 09 budget of too many Chiefs and not enough Indians. I think it would be quite helpful if Bernie added a column with the percentage increase/decrease in the budget.
Lynne Says:
June 16th, 2008 at 8:01 am
Once again, someone in the blogs has to correct the Sun’s editorial staff (ahem, or one particular member of it). Nice job, Mimi.

“I do not know the political motivations of the unidentified individual(s) who have brought a confidential process prematurely into a public forum.” Where’s the damned investigations into who is leaking this stuff?

But when it comes to the schools, teachers, and administrators, trust the Sun editor to go after them no matter what the real facts are. (That his own staff, even, has written about.)
Mr. Lynne Says:
June 16th, 2008 at 8:15 am
What I am missing? I do not understand the charge of “secret negotiations” levied against the School Committee

Its the column,… its not a format designed for information, only gossip and agenda pushing.
GOP Footsoldier Says:
June 16th, 2008 at 11:28 am
So let me get this straight- middle management is getting another pay raise and they may have to lay off the people that actually teach the kids day in and day out? Awesome.
Peter Says:
June 16th, 2008 at 11:36 am
The way these people treat education you’d think they left their mothers’ crotches knowing how to read, add, and complain.

Maybe schools need to start teaching children the importance of education so when these mouth breathers grow up and go out into “society” they’ll appreciate everything they learned in school and actually VALUE education.

Sorry, but they make me so SICK!
loving lowell Says:
June 16th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Where is the leak? the budget numbers are public, all you need is a calculator to figure out the anticipated raises. No need for anyone to “leak” anything.
K-R-S Says:
June 16th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I’m sure that many department heads on the City side would like to acheive “parity” with later hires.
What I don’t agree with is the fact that, as Foots pointed out, that administrators are receiving pay raises, while some of the folks that do the actual teaching of the children are laid off.
The priorities are all wrong. You can’t in good conscience budget for more money for management pay raises and in the next breath complain you don’t have enough money to keep more teachers in the classroom.
This is precisely what puts a sour taste in the mouths of tax payers.
waittilnextyr Says:
June 16th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
It is not just the public center that favors those at the top:

Sun., June. 15, 2008
NEW YORK - As the American economy slowed to a crawl and stockholders watched their money evaporate, CEO pay still chugged to yet more dizzying heights last year, an Associated Press analysis shows.

The AP review of compensation for the heads of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index finds the median pay package added up to nearly $8.4 million. That’s a comfortable gain of about $280,000 from 2006.
Mimi Says:
June 16th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Loving…

In the June 11th Sun editorial, the writer states “The school board, however, wants to break Murphy’s contract early and give her a $6,677 a year increase to $108,849. In this way, the [School Committee] board says it will achieve “parity” with two other assistant superintendents whose contracts expire June 30 and will be receiving higher negotiated salaries of $111,566.”

I do not see the word “parity” written in the Proposed FY 2009 Budget nor do I see the sentiments of the School Committee expressed there. Please point to the page in the School Committee’s Proposed FY 2009 budget where the editorial writers of the Sun garnered that information.
Kpem Says:
June 16th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Bernie Lynch seems to be an intelligent and “unconnected” man.
I would say that this was and is the best budget that he could negotiate. (not the best budget there could be) I am sure there are some changes that he would like to see, but he will probably have to work his way into them over time and over negotiations. He has gone to bat for culture, recycling, and he has made many efforts to eliminate the line between government and the residents. I am going to leave his budget alone and pay my 2.5%.
K-R-S Says:
June 16th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Kpem, I went over the budget myself, and could not find much to justify a rant. A 2.5% increase, I’d gladly pay, when looking at other communities around us.
Kpem Says:
June 16th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
KRS,
The issues that are in the budget are not issues that could be changed by Bernie Lynch unless our whole system was changed. (longvity/sick time buy back/union negotiation etc.) Anyone that drives a car or heats a home knows that expenses have gone up so we should all understand increased expenses. I can certainly understand and feel for someone that is barely getting by and seeing 7% pay increases in the budget. I really like the graphs and comps that Bernie used and I would just like to see a percentage increase/decrease column. (saves everyone the calculator and the suspicion of hiding something)
bobo Says:
June 17th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Longevity is not a part of pay for most new city side hires and slowly being eliminated year by year (I don’t know about school employees). A lot of unions lost longevity back in the early 1990s and only those select few individuals left that were grandfathered continue to receive anything. The dollar amount paid today is capped at the same amount recieved the year the cap was implemented. You can see this in individual department budget lines as a decreasing line item. It isn’t easy to find and doesn’t give percentage changes but you can see the change from the past year (or 2 maybe).

Buybacks are capped for sick leave, but I can’t really justify them anyway, except to say that they were negotiated for in lieu of something else as part of the bargaining process and it had to go through a city manager and city council to be approved. They are supposed to be an incentive to not use sick time. However since most contracts buy them back at 1 for 3, with a dollar cap, that isn’t much of an incentive, especially for higher paid employees who have the same dollar cap but whose days are paid out at a higher rate. You use your time and get paid one for one. You can only keep a handle on sick leave use if managers keep tabs on it, analyze patterns of use and require notes as much as possible. There needs to be discipline put in place for thse who repeatedly use sick time without notes. Good employees have no issue with catching the abusers.

As for union negotiation, collective bargaining is the law here. I think everyone should have the right to join a union and negotiate for their working conditions, especially when there is no right to strike for some jobs, like public safety. I don’t want to live in a “right to work” state. I have always thought all unions should have to deal with the same entity (the manager) during negotiations though. None of this separate treatment for school employees. I think overall less attention is paid by the electorate to school committee business than general city council business, which allows for more to get by.

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June 15, 2008

School Committee and Pay Raises

13 Responses to “School Committee and Pay Raises”

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