DeForest Special Meeting Tonite...

But who the hell knows what's being discussed!!!

Have you EVER seen such a poor agenda?
What the hell does "Consider official Board communication to stakeholders" mean?

What is the topic?
Will public comment be allowed?
Has this got anything to do with covering one's buttocks in the wake of the disaster caused by their ridiculous raises give to administration?

And we love DA Bales' explanation for the lack of transparency about the raises:

Though Bales says that is not uncommon for such financial issues to be approved by the board without public discussion, others are uncomfortable with what they see as a lack of transparency.

---http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/education/blog/article_542f4f78-8c64-11e0-9016-001cc4c002e0.html

The DeForest Debacle: Self-Serving, Self-Perpetuating Opulence

Equity, Schmequity!
DeForest administrators' cries for salary equity are weak at best.  Does a doctor at John Hopkins earn the same as a doctor in some podunk community hospital?  We don't think so.  Does a police officer in a small midwestern village earn as much as a New York City cop?  We don't think so!  It doesn't make sense!

Equity has to be based on comparing apples to apples, not apples to pineapples!  You can't compare DeForest school employee salaries to the 16 Dane Co. school districts because they are so variable.  DeForest has an enrollment of 3249, while Dane Co. districts range from 800 kids to 24,800 kids.
Even the average enrollment of all Dane Co. districts is 34% higher than DeForest's enrollment.

Looking at enrollments, DeForest administrators do not
warrant pay at the same level as those in much larger districts

DeForest fits best in a group with 6 other Dane Co. districts:  Oregon, Waunakee, Stoughton, Monona Grove, McFarland, and Mount Horeb.  In addition to enrollment size, other factors including community housing market, per capita income, and student socio-economic factors must be considered.   We don't think DeForest did that.

Self-Perpetuating Opulence
These are tight times, people.  How can anyone --yes, including Exxon executives--consider themselves worthy of obscenely grandiose raises?  All around, people are having their incomes REDUCED!  Those relying on Social Security haven't seen an increase in 2 years, and may see a very slight increase in January 2012.  State, county, and municipal workers are seeing their take-home pay REDUCED by 8-10% as soon as Gov. Walkers gets his plan approved.  How can any individual take this without getting up and speaking their piece?

The "new" money that will be paid to DeForest administrators amounts to over $300,000 in cost.  For a district with a tax levy of about $21M, that means that these new raises will add at least a 1.4% increase to the tax levy.  And like some STDs, this is the gift that keeps on giving.  Salaries will only INCREASE!

What makes matters worse is that districts feed off of themselves.  If DeForest is allowed to award these excessive raises, then other school districts will just want more, which will result in DeForest administrators wanting even more!  It's one giant game of leapfrog.  At what point do we stop the madness?  Look...we get it.  These people manage our schools that teach our children.  It's an important job.  It deserves to be amply compensated.  But "amply" does not equate to "obscenely".

Here's a question:  just exactly how much time is being spent figuring out what the other guy is earning--and how to spin that into justification for raises-- instead of focusing on the educational outcomes of our kids?

Just as we need to raise the floor and lower the ceiling for teachers, we need to establish a cap for administrators as well.  You don't like ceilings for teacher pay?  Look...there can't be a one of you out there that can rationalize a kindergarten teacher or elementary school "Library Media Specialist" earning over $90,000 per year for 9 months work.  That's just plain insanity.  In fact...we offer this challenge....if you really think you can rationalize the merit of such a salary, then e-mail us at sp.eye1@gmail.com and we'll publish your argument...anonymously if you wish.

State leaders are so quick to put caps on spending.  You know what happens?  These people pay themselves first and take the cuts in supplies and services that directly affect our kids. Hello!  McFly!  Salaries and fringes account for as much as 80-85% of a school district's budget!  When is one of our well-compensated legislators going to push a bill that will places the caps on PAY, not supplies and critical services?  But we digress.

Let's look at how DeForest's "Dane Co. Market Salary Adjustment" has yielded:

District Administrator
DeForest's District Administrator, Jon Bales, is currently the 6th highest paid District Administrator in Dane County.  While Bales did not receive anything as part of the "market adjustment" increase, he already received a 5% increased (reported to be a 2% increase) for 2010-11. He now  earns $146,243, which is $4,000 per year more than the WELL-compensated Dr. Culver in Sun Prairie!  Dr. Culver runs a district with TWICE the number of students as DeForest, and has 2 more years experience than Dr. Bales.  Think Culver will be wanting more now?

Business Manager
The average salary of the 13 Dane Co. Administrators titled, "Business Manager" is $106,700. DeForest' Business Manager, Diane Pertzborn was earning $111,855 following a 5% increase for 2010-11. With this "Dane Co. Market Adjustment", she will earn (effective Jan.1, 2011) $118,580. Her salary previously ranked 8 of 13 and now will rank 6 of 13, just behind Sun Prairie's Phil Frei ($123,345). Pertzborn's salary previously was 4.8% above the Dane Co. average ($106,700) for Business Managers, and now will be 6.3% above average. Is that equity?

Human Resources (HR) Director

The average salary of the 7 Dane Co. Administrators titled, "Central Office Administrator, subtitle Human Resources" is $112,768. DeForest's HR Director, Vickie Adkins was earning $93,500 following a 5% increase for 2010-11. With this "Dane Co. Market Adjustment", she will earn (effective Jan.1, 2011) $115,000. Her salary previously ranked 7th out of 7 and now will rank 3rd of 7, just above Sun Prairie's Annette Mikula ($114,000). Adkins' salary previously was 15% below the Dane Co. average for HR Managers, and now will be 1.4% above average.   Keep in mind that only 7 school districts (Madison, Verona,  Sun Prairie ,  Waunakee , Middleton-Cross Plains, Stoughton,  De Forest) are large enough to even have a dedicated HR Manager

Director of Instruction
The average salary of the 25 Dane Co. Administrators titled, "Director of Instruction Manager" is $103,600. DeForest' Director of Instruction, Sue Wilson was earning $94,554 following a 5% increase for 2010-11. With this "Dane Co. Market Adjustment", she will earn (effective Jan.1, 2011) $112,181. Her salary previously ranked 16 of 25 and now will rank 10 of 25, just behind Sun Prairie's Alice Murphy ($113,200). Wilson's salary previously was 8% below the Dane Co. average ($103,600) for Directors of Instruction, and now will be 9% above average.

Director of Special Education

The average salary of the 13 Dane Co. Administrators titled, "Director of Special Education" is $107,900. DeForest's Director of Special Ed., David Perrodin was earning $96,700 following a 5% increase for 2010-11. With this "Dane Co. Market Adjustment", he will earn (effective Jan.1, 2011) $112,181. His salary previously ranked 11 of 13 and now will rank 4 of 13, about 3.5% less than Sun Prairie's Lisa Dawes ($116,200). Perrodin's salary previously was 9.5% below the Dane Co. average for Directors of Special Education, and now will be 4% above average.

High School Principal

The average salary of the 20 Dane Co. Administrators titled, "High School Principal" is $107,500. DeForest's HS Principal, Machell Schwarz was earning $98,145 following a 5% increase for 2010-11. With this "Dane Co. Market Adjustment", she will earn (effective Jan.1, 2011) $113,000. Her salary previously ranked 13 of 20 and now will rank 7 of 20, about $2,000 more than Sun Prairie's Lisa Heipp ($111,044). Schwarz' salary previously was 5.6% below the Dane Co. average for High School Principals, and now will be 7% above average.

Middle School Principal

The average salary of the 16 Dane Co. Administrators titled, "Middle School Principal" is $97,500. DeForest's MS Principal, Paul Herrick was earning $91,400 following a 5% increase for 2010-11. With this "Dane Co. Market Adjustment", he will earn (effective Jan.1, 2011) $103,371. His salary previously ranked 11 of 16 and now will rank 5 of 16.  This is still about $10,000 below the average for Sun Prairie's two middle school principals, Clark Luessman and Nancy Hery, but Sun Prairie is at the head of all Dane County Middle School Principal salaries!  Herrick's salary previously was 5.6% below the Dane Co. average for Middle School Principals, and now will be 6% above average.

 Elementary School Principal

The average salary for Dane Co. Administrators titled, "Elementary School Principal" is $90,950. The average pay of DeForest's elementary principals, Michael Finke, Ann Schoenberger, and Michael Weisensel was $90,000 following a 5% increase for 2010-11. With this "Dane Co. Market Adjustment", the average (effective Jan.1, 2011) will now be $94,300. DeForest previously ranked 9 of 16 for elementary principal pay and now will rank 6 of 16.  This average is $700 more than the average salary of Sun Prairie's seven elementary school principals.  DeForest elementary school principal pay previously was 1% below the Dane Co. average for Elementary School Principals, and now will be 4% above average. 

Can't See DeForest For The Greed

Confidential?  Yeah...we can see why they didn't
 want THIS document to ever see the light of day!

 The pressure is off of district administrators and the school board here in Sun Prairie, because of the shocking cajones of the DeForest Board of Education and DeForest Area School District Administrators.

While we're getting worked up --and justifiably so--- about our own district administration on the cusp of getting 1.6% increases in the midst of tight times, the DeForest Administration Team ---with the support of the Board of Education-- awarded themselves titannic raises under the guise of "Dane County Market Equity" adjustments. The raises are retroactive to January 1, 2011. For appearances sake--you just KNOW they'll spin this in budget documents--- their salaries are being frozen for 2011-12. Geeeee whiz! With those increases, they should be frozen permanently.

How much of raises are they getting, you ask? The AVERAGE salary increase since the 2009-10 school year (for which administrators received a whopping 5% increase) is 16%. For a group of 22 administrators, the lowest increase received was 5.1% and the highest 39.1%. The price tag for salary adjustments comes to an incredible $304,000! And that amount is an expense for EVERY future year, further compounded by future wage increases.

Simply...SHOCKING!

For the top 11 DeForest Administrators, the AVERAGE salary increase in dollars was $15,700 per year. That increase in pay amounts to $1300 per month! Many senior citizens on Social Security (who have not seen an increase in the past 2 years) earn less than $1300 per month TOTAL! These fat cats are getting that as a RAISE!

Questions abound in DeForest as early indications suggest that the board of education (school board) did not vote on these increases in open session.   That would be a clear violation of Open Meetings Laws.  We could find no documentation or agenda that suggested these raises were even considered, let alone a done deal.  We were, however, able to obtain a document that appears to have been leaked from within the school district.  The members of the DeForest Board of Education should be ashamed of themselves, to say the least. They'll be lucky if they don't get tarred and feathered right out of the community. Recall elections are the soup du jour this spring. We may be seeing a few (or all) board of educations members facing recall elections.

Clearly these folks have no clue as to how badly things could heat up for them. Sun Prairie taxpayers put the whammy on the school board here 2 years ago by voting to cut the tax levy by $2,000,000. That amount could pale in comparison to what DeForest community members could do at their annual meeting this summer.

Why is this such a poorly timed move? First of all, folks, the economy isn't exactly hopping along like an Energizer bunny. Second, the time is quickly approaching when state, county, and municipal workers' paychecks will be severely cut by Governor Walker's agenda. These ridiculous raises will be hitting people's pockets when they can least afford it.

One other problem this situation poses is that we could very quickly get into a game of keeping up with the Jones. Our administrators will see DeForest's raises and want similar bounty.

The DeForest Times reports the following:

[District Administrator Dr. Jon] Bales said the decision was based on a desire by the board to have every district employee compensated at a level of at least the average in the market. "Over the years, we've been able to accomplish that with support staff and teachers," he said. "The effort with administrators was exactly the same. It's been put off, frankly, for years, because it is a high-cost group. We wanted to do it last year, we didn't do it. We wanted to do it this year, we didn't do it. We implemented it mid-year because you only pay half of what that base increase would have been. While it looks like a dramatic sort of adjustment for some people, at the end of the day, they're paid an average wage in the county." "I don't discount the timing, I don't discount the pressures on the district, but that was built around a balanced budget before the new state budget."

What The People Are Saying

These are but a few snippets of comments made from various folks within the community:

"I can't afford to keep paying these taxes; I'm putting my house up for sale and moving to Madison."

"I live on a fixed income and, after many years, I can no longer afford to live in Sun Prairie."

"A 7.8% tax increase? Are you [expletive deleted] kidding me??"

"Raises? Why are we giving anyone raises? I haven't had a raise in three years."

"Why aren't we freezing salaries? Most people have had no raises, their wages cut, or are unemployed."

" If [Administrators] are asking for anything other than zero, they are making a huge mistake. I think the community should push to have that settled before the Oct meeting."

"The district needs to do a better job of cutting money by looking at salaries and benefits, which are a large part of the budget."

"Why is the board 'negotiating' with school district administrators over a desired salary increase? These people are not union. Like any other private sector employee, they need to understand that they TAKE what the school board offers, or decide to go elsewhere. It's that simple."

" Whoever designed the parking lot and roof runoff plan [for the new pool] should probably go back to school. At the entrance, there are downspouts that send the roof water right down the main walkway in."

" Shouldn't we demand a board and administration who can answer the simple question, "How much money do we have, give or take a million dollars?" "

" This is a small town with small infrastructure, and the small businesses are going away. Why wasn't money used for teacher supplies and special education students instead of plays and going swimming? "

[regarding the pool problems] "If you have specifications shouldn't the work be done to spec? Shouldn't someone be following up on that? Especially for what we paid for the specs."

..............................................

Our Take

Pool leaks and problems, a budget that the community does NOT approve, raises in the midst of a 2 year and counting recession that seems poised for a double dip. This is the picture of a school district in complete disarray. And these people think they deserve raises?

A year later and the school board still hasn't taken the school district by the reins. Who exactly are they representing?

Sadly, the school board--at least most of them--does not care if residents decide to leave the community. The cold hard reality is that even if you move, SOMEONE has to pay the property taxes for the home you vacate. They only care about the property tax income. Frankly, it seems to us that they are simply rolling the dice and hoping to lose whiny taxpayers and replace them with upper class folks with tons of disposable income and a "spare no cost for education--even if it drives the penny-pinching old farts out" mentality.

As for raises, we're scratching our heads too. The school district needs to be run like a business, and in tight times, there is no money available for raises. Paying these people--that are already more than adequately compensated-- more is not going to improve test scores, get us a National Merit Scholar, or enhance the education of our kids. It'll just add to their already nicely lined pockets.

The pool is just another fiasco in a long line of fiascoes. The district just can't seem to get out of its own way!

Say...isn't it time for a Dr. Culver blog? There have been a total of 2 posts in the past 3 months after Dr. Culver told us that it had been suggested that he "blog more frequently with 'less length'". Or was that "blog less frequently with NO length"?

Monday, April 26, 2010

A Rumor and 3 Realities

It’s been suggested that I blog more frequently with “less length”. I’m going to give it a try. But I have a lot to share, so I’m going to transition by doing four “short” topics.

Stay InspirEd (and please stay in touch)

Tim Culver
tculver@spasd.k12.wi.us

Raising Questions About Raises

So...district administration has built a * SECRET * percentage wage increase into the budget for Tim Culver, Administrators, Administrative Support staff, and Local 60 employees. Questions abound.

Did they factor in...o%? 1%? 2%, 2.5%, 3% ? 3.8%? 4%? More?

We don't know because they won't tell the public for fear of hurting their "negotiation position". Which position is that exactly? Bent over the table,waving a "We Give Shamelessly" flag?

Will the school board match what the teachers contract for 2010-11 provides? The SPEA contract, signed last June, calls for a net 2.81% salary increase per teacher. So...is the magic number 2.81%?? Is that what the board is shooting for? Did any of YOU get 2.81% this year? Wait...let's clarify...we mean did any of you get a 2.81% (or more) wage INCREASE this year?

What is a fair wage increase?

Is a fair wage equal to changes in the cost of living? Gee...all those folks living on Social Security income---increases to which are tied to "Cost-Of-Living-Adjustments" (COLA), were ZERO for 2010, and almost certainly will be ZERO for 2011 as well.

So...if the senior citizens that helped pay the way for us to be where we are at now...and who WE should be taking care of now...are getting ZippetyDooDah, why should we be increasing wages?

We can't ignore existing economic conditions

Look...as much as Seabass doesn't want to hear about state employees, state employees, like school district staff, are public sector employees. Unless you've been doing an ostrich imitation for the last 2 years, you know that NATIONWIDE, the economy stinks. Wisconsin state employees' contracts expired July 1, 2009. For 2009-10, there were NO raises. In fact, all employees were give 8 furlough days each, amounting to a 3% wage CUT. In addition, those scheduled for a 2% wage increase in June 2009 saw that increase canceled. For the July1, 2010 through June 30, 2011 fiscal year, another 8 furlough days and another ZERO percent wage increase.

County and municipal employees faced the same. So PLEASE...tell us why school district employees deserve a wage INCREASE when everyone else's salary is flat at best or being cut? Got an answer for that? Please....e-mail us. Don't be shy. Instead of just saying school district staff deserve more, please tell us why school district staff deserve more than what the rest of the world is getting.

Should wage increases be tied to COLA (like Social Security increases)?

The COLA for 2010, based on 2009 data was ZERO. Wanna bet that 2011 won't be much different? NEA, the National Education Association (the nationwide voice for teachers) has as one of their three primary missions, raises that exceed the cost of living in at least 50 percent of NEA higher education locals.

Should wage increases be tied to Consumer Price Index (CPI)?

The CPI for 200, based on 2009 data was NEGATIVE 0.8%. Through May 2010, the CPI was showing a 2.2% increase. But we know how things fared in June, don't we? The Social Security COLA is based largely on the CPI...and already they are projecting 0% increase fort 2011.

.......................

Dear school board...

Time to actually get in touch with what the rest of the world is facing and practice independent thought.

Do You Like Apples?

Well...how do you like THESE apples?

As the school board gets to thinking about pay raises for administration, let's look at how administrators have fared over the past 7 years.

7 years...

22 Administrators...

An AVERAGE raise of 4.6% per year

And these are the people that are making --on average-- $90,000 per year.

No wonder!

The starting salary for administrators is $70,000.

7 years of 4.6% per year raise increases $70,000 to $96,000

8 years as an Administrator...and you're in the $100K club.

And...just for reference...during at least 3 of those years, state employees received 0.0% increases, and NEVER received an increase of more than 2.5-3%.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.