Keepin' up With The Jones #1 - Look What Middleton Did!

Raises approved for all Middleton-Cross Plains school employees 
 Posted: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 [Madison.com]

Middleton-Cross Plains School District employees are getting an early holiday present after the School Board voted unanimously Monday night to give them all raises.The raises and bonuses, which will add 1.5 percent to the average teacher's pay, will cost the district $643,000. Both union and nonunion employees will receive them.

Teachers will get about $405,000 of the $643,000 in new pay, according to district figures. The rest of the school district's employees will get a 1 percent salary increase, along with bonuses ranging from $300 to $500, though administrators will not receive bonuses. The average total pay increase ranges from 1 percent for administrators to 2.93 percent for food service employees.

Yup...this is exactly where you mutter half out loud, "WTF!"

Gee....where was THIS little gem nestled within the confines of the budget and tax levy documents?
Or did Middleton mysteriously FIND the money after Nov. 1st??  We know how that goes!

In the Sun Prairie school district, every additional $375,000 to the tax levy would translate to an additional $0.10 on the mill rate.  So...this lovely raise package would have raised our mill rate another $0.17 (from $12.56), or added an additional $35 in taxes for an average home valued at $200,000.  What say, people?  Is it worth 3 large pizzas to give all employees a raise between 1 and 2.93%?  What was it we read about state employees?  Oh yeah....no raises for the next 2 years.

The next logical question we can expect from the SPASD employees would seem to be "where's ours"?