A Survey Monkey On Our Back?

Preface:  This is the 3rd installment of our analysis of administrator contract stipends.  For this piece, we looked at "professional" journal/newspaper/magazine subscriptions purchased during calendar 2010.  We're hearing back from our earlier posts on the stipend issue.  Let us remind you that we are not suggesting that any of these expenditures violate contractual agreements (we'll leave that up to the community --or perhaps the school board--to ask).  We merely want the community to be informed as to the lucrative "perks" nestled within inflated administrator contracts.  We want YOU, faithful readers, to ask the questions:  (is it even appropriate for these "perks" to be included in contracts?  Do we compensate these people enough already?  Are we maintaining a caste system of sorts where various employee "groups" [the "haves"] are getting a much sweeter deal than others [the have nots]?)


Let's Review the Contract Language on Stipends: 
C. Professional Development Stipend 
1. To promote professional growth each administrator shall be provided with a professional development stipend as follows: 
  a. $2000 per year for Building Principals; Assistant and Deputy District  Administrators; and Directors of Student Services or Human Resources. 
  b. $1375 per year for all other administrators. 
2. The professional development stipend may be used by an administrator for: 
  d. Other professional growth or learning activities and/or materials (for  example, professional  journals) as approved  by the supervising  administrator.  Any such materials shall remain the property of the school  or department. 
3. The professional development stipend: 
  a. Must be related to each administrator’s annual professional growth plan goals; 


Subscription Summary

• 34 Total  subscriptions - $4560/yr
• 10 "District" subscriptions --beyond those in library--- @ $2,049 ( $205 ea)
•        7  "Group" subscriptions  $1,223
•        3 School board subscriptions  $570  (Does the school board know they have these?)
• 24 Individual subscriptions:  $2,765/yr
• A total of 9 individuals (mostly administrators) have subscriptions:  avg of 2-3 each;   ~ $300 ea/yr
• 25 DIFFERENT journals/magazines....and that's just for administrators.  Never mind that at least some of these are already available in , say, the high school library.

A Note from the Department of Repetition & Redundancy
We are purchasing multiple subscriptions of a particular journal in several cases.  Besides the fact that some of these may already be part of the high school library collection (in which case do we need individual subscriptions), can't we all get along and share?  Frei, Murphy, and Dawes have offices that are a stone's throw from each other.  Can't they share ONE subscription?


Why do we have FOUR "Survey Monkey" (an on-line survey tool) subscriptions?  ($300, $200(2),  $239.40)?    Subscriptions are held in the names of Culver, HS Athletics, HS Guidance, Brian Dean [Social Worker, ATODA/At-Risk Coordinator].  Why does Guidance pay the higher monthly rate?  Instead of $1,000 per year, we could get ONE "Pro" subscription for a mere $200.  Better yet...couldn't we just use the BASIC (*free*) subscription?  Do we really do surveys of more than 10 questions to more than 100 respondents?  The question needs to be asked.

• Why do we have THREE "Education week" subscriptions? Stocks-Glover ($59.94), A. Murphy ($59.94) , Culver ($74.xx)
• Why 3 subscriptions for WASB's " WI School Laws": Frei, Dawes,  Murphy ($85 each)
• Why 2 subscriptions for WI Taxpayer Alliance, "Focus" Culver/Board ($99), Frei ($43)

Does Anybody LOOK at these purchases?

• For 4 Survey Monkey subscriptions, we're paying THREE (3) different rates  Why?
• For 3 Education Week subscriptions, we're paying TWO (2) different rates.  We researched Education Week subscriptions and found two websites offering it at $40/year.  So why are we paying $59-$75?
• We have 2 subscriptions to the TaxPayer Alliance publication, "Focus".  The cost for Culver/the Board is $99, while Phil Frei's personal subscription is $43?  Why is that?   Can't they share a subscription?
• At least we're paying the same price ($85 for each of our 3 subscriptions to "WI School Laws")

...and from the "Really!?" Department
Newsweek?  We get it.  It's a great "current events" magazine.  Maybe we could see it for a high school social studies class (who would use the library's subscription).  But for an elementary school principal?  And why are we paying three times as much for it as it is available for online?


Wisconsin State Journal?  We've asked this question before.  The school district administration feel entitled to have the taxpayers provided them with something for the "reading room".    7-Day Delivery, 26 weeks,  $65.  Do we REALLY need to provide a 7-day newspaper?  Hey...who gets the Saturday and Sunday editions?  Hmmm?





Hues? ("Hear Us Emerging Sisters") Our particular favorite.  We kinda get it.  This is a "girl power" mag, aimed at building self-esteem in young girls.  But what we don't so much get is that which you find if you Google it:  HUES is hip, smart, and down-to-earth. A woman's guide to power and attitude, HUES promotes self-esteem and self-sufficiency among young women, ages 16 - 30, of different cultures, sizes, and lifestyles. The publishers, Identical twin sisters Tali and Ophira Edut—known as The AstroTwins— are professional astrologers with over 15 years experience in astrology, publishing and coaching

Maybe if we purchased these from Publisher's Clearing House we could at least win $10,000,000!

32 Miles per Day

(Part 2 of a series on contractual "perks")


...and the Jeopardy question is:
For how many miles per contract day do we pay administrators --above and beyond their salary-- for "travel within Dane County" in lieu of having to file for reimbursement of actual expenses incurred.  Note...this is not reimbursement for travelling to/from work...just for travel within the Dane County for district-related business.

32 miles PER DAY?  That's like 4 or 5 cycles between every school in the district...daily.
Why are we paying these people for nearly 7000 miles of travel JUST WITHIN DANE County each year?  Remember...for travel outside of Dane County, we reimburse them at the IRS rates in addition to this "mileage stipend"!   If the average person puts 12,000 miles on their vehicle each year, we are automatically PAYING these folks for just under 60% of the mileage that the average person puts on their vehicle!

And shouldn't their job be here in Sun Prairie?  Not out galavanting across Dane County.

What could $30,225 per year buy?
$30,225 per year - the cost of providing these mileage stipends. Remember...no receipts are required. They don't even have to do any work-related travel within Dane Co. They just get the cash.  You don't hear administrator complaining, do you?  So clearly they are not traveling MORE than that per day for work.  This is yet another "perk". 

$30,225 per year could buy a lot of school supplies from those infamous school supply lists. 


Do the math
We pay administrators either $75/month or, for the really bigwigs, $125/month worked.  Culver gets $3,900 per month.

• $75 per month
• ...at $3 per gallon
• ...translates to 25 gallons of gas
• If the average vehicle gets 25 miles/gallon
• ...that translates to 625 miles per month
• The minimum we pay administrators this "stipend" is 11 months
• 625 miles per month  X 11 months = 6875 miles per year
• 6875 miles per year divided by 215 contract days (and that includes 5 paid holidays!)
• comes to about 32 miles per day

What does "month worked" mean?
Wisconsin schools are basically planned round 180 days.  Actually things get fuzzy because "officially" the number of school days required is 175 but the more critical number is hours of schooling.  So let's just work off of 180 school days.

Between the start and end of the school year there are at least 20 days where kids are not in school, but administrators are still required to work (or take a paid leave day).  So that brings us to 200 days.  The first and last days of school are typically 1/2 days, but administrative staff work a full day.  In addition, administrators are required to start their work year at least 2 days before the official start of school and end their school year a couple of days after the last day of school.  

So...basically, it appears that administrators work only a couple of days in August and not even half-way through the month of June.  Yet, no administrator is paid less than 11 months of the mileage stipend.   The key here is the contract language "per month worked".   It seems that the interpretation is that if one works ANY day within a month, the administrator earns the full month of mileage stipend ($75 or $125).  

Wow.  And let's keep in mind that these calculations are based on th LOWEST level of compensation ($75/month).


In the real world, when one is being paid over $70,000 per year (and the average salary of all administrators is just shy of $100K), a little bit of travel is considered "part of the job".
And, perhaps more to the point, where exactly are these folks traveling anyway?  Shouldn't building principals and assistant principals be in their schools?

We're just sayin'.

Stipends: Swollen Memberships

(Part 1 of a series)
Preface
It is important to note from the start that we recognize the value that memberships in professional organizations and societies offer in terms of networking, resources, and professional development.  But like anything, it must be in good measure.  Maybe you agree it's a concern, maybe you do not; but in  the wake of a serious economic downturn, all stones must be turned to at least evaluate potential savings for the district.  The sheer number and cost of these memberships is mind boggling.  But perhaps what stands out most is that these are intangibles; we can theorize that having these memberships could possibly result in a better district....yet we cannot prove it.  Where are the metrics?  How do we assess the return on our investment?   More to the point....many of these memberships are provided for individuals who are already very well compensated.  At what point does it become too much, and if individuals wish to maintain these memberships, they pony up the membership fee out of their own amply lined pockets.

It's time someone took a look at how many professional memberships we pay for in the district.

Teachers continue to have to supplement their classroom materials out of their own pockets because building budgets have been reduced.  That's just plain wrong.   Get past teacher pay for just a moment and ask yourself:  should ANY employee ANYWHERE have to provide their own materials to do their jobs?  We don't think so.

Interestingly enough, teachers' building budgets have been reduced by about $50,000. That reduction only means that teachers have to dig further into their own pockets to provide classroom materials to teach our kids.   Wanna take a guess at how much we spent in the last 12 months on professional membership dues?  Yup...a little more than $50,000.

General "district-wide" memberships:  24, totalling a bit over $27,000
Individual memberships:  104, totaling a bit under $25,000
Of those individual memberships, 72 (69% of individual memberships) were for the 28.5 FTE administrators, accounting for a bit over $21,000 (86% of individual membership costs).
That's an average of 3 memberships per administrator at a cost of just under $1000 per administrator.

24 of the 29 administrators have at least one membership paid for by the school district.  Two administrators take the prize for most individual memberships, with each having 7 membership dues/fees paid for by the district.

District-wide memberships include 17 different organizations. Individual memberships include 40 separate organizations.  That's a total of 57 memberships!

Memberships may be a good thing...but why are we paying for multiple memberships to the same organization?
The district pays for FOUR (4) SAM's Club memberships:  one each for Nursing, Elementary schools (ES?), and --not one, but --TWO memberships for high school athletics!  While the cost is fairly minimal, why do we need FOUR?  Can't the district purchase just ONE membership?  We purchase a "business" membership, which includes, " one Membership for you and one for a household member over 18 years of age.   Business Members also receive a company card that may be used by an employee for business purchases. "   Hmmm...who gets the second membership?  And since we receive a company card that may be used by an employee for purchases, why the need for more than one membership?

The bottom line is that these costs add up to a non-trivial amount.  There's an old adage that reminds us that 100 "1% costs" add up to 100%.  And these dollars can be put to better use paying for direct educational material costs that are being paid out of teachers' pockets at the moment. And need we remind you of the requirement that each middle schooler supply a ream of paper as part of their 'school supply list'?   http://sp-eye.blogspot.com/2010/08/even-more-school-supply-shenanigans.html

Other Questions

• Do we need pay for 18 separate AWSA [Association of Wisconsin School Administrators] memberships?
•  Do we need pay for 17 separate Administrator memberships to ASCD [Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development]?
•  Do we need pay for 9 separate NAESP [ National Association of Elementary School Principals] memberships?  We only have 7 elementary schools!  Why are we paying for membership in an ELEMENTARY school organization for two MIDDLE school administrators?  For the half-time principal of SP4K? 
•  Do we need to pay for 4 separate NASSP [ National Association of Secondary School Principals] ?
• Why are we paying for 2 memberships to NCTM  [National Council of Teachers of Mathematics ] for an elementary school principal and  a Staff Development Program Manager?  A math teacher?  Math department head?  Maybe...but two administrators?

THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION
Documents we have obtained from the district indicate that most stipends...such as Dr. Culver's $125/month for Dane Co. travel costs and $325/month for "miscellaneous" costs...are paid out along with salary.

So....if we are paying these people a stipend of $1,375-$2,000 per year to cover things such as memberships, why is the district writing so many checks for memberships?  Hmmm?  We didn't see any re-imbursement checks in the Deposit listings to cover these costs Does that mean that, in addition to these memberships, they are paying an additional $1,375 to $2,000 out-of-pocket for others?  Hmmm?  Enquiring minds are interested in knowing.

Wait!  It's all OK.  It's part of an Administrator's Compensation package!
That's right, folks.  It's all above board...right?  After all, the administrators' benefit package (which school board members have voted to approve) includes the following:

C. Professional Development Stipend

1. To promote professional growth each administrator shall be provided with a professional development stipend as follows:

a. $2,000 per year for Building Principals; Assistant and Deputy District  Administrators; and Directors of Student Services or Human Resources.

b. $1,375 per year for all other administrators. 

3. The professional development stipend:

a. Must be related to each administrator’s annual professional growth plan goals;

b. Will not be subtracted from the administrator's operational or building budget;

c. Will be carried over annually, up to a maximum amount of $4,000 per administrator;

d. May be supplemented by funds from the administrator's operational budget;

YIKES! eh?  Not only do they get up to $2,000 per year ON TOP OF THEIR FAT SALARIES...but

• they get to spend it pretty much anyway they like,
• they get to carry over and "stockpile" up to $4,000 per year,
• they can supplement the money from their own personal department budget,
• and there doesn't appear to be any real oversight.

Is it just us?  Or does anyone else smell at least the potential for shenanigans?


What exactly is a Stipend
(1) a sum of money allotted on a regular basis; usually for some specific purpose
   -- wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

(2)  a fixed or regular amount of money paid as a salary or allowance, as to a clergyman
[ from Latin stīpendium, from stips (a contribution) + pendere (to pay out)]
-- Free dictionary online