I see the District 150 administrators got their raises, including a very special raise for the associate superintendents and a couple others:
The highest percentage increase goes to director of employee services, Geri Hammer, who will see her pay go up 19 percent. She’s followed by Associate Superintendent Herschel Hannah and district research director Bryan Chumbley, who will see their pay increase by 11 percent. These raises are retroactive to the beginning of the school year. […]
Associate Superintendent Cindy Fischer was approved for a 3.5 percent pay raise, also retroactive to the beginning of the school year. The board also approved giving Chumbley and Hammer raises in school year 2007-08 similar to their raises this year.
Meanwhile, the district’s deficit is reportedly $6.65 million. And they can’t afford to give teachers a raise. And several schools can’t make adequate yearly progress (AYP) and are in restructuring. I especially love the fact that these raises are retroactive to the beginning of the school year. That’s a nice perk: six months of back pay in a lump sum.
Said board president David Gorenz: “This is fair. We’ve made significant advances this past year, and it’s largely due to not only the teachers but also the administrators.” Yes, they certainly have made significant advances: several schools have advanced to the next level of restructuring, the board prematurely advanced $877,500 to buy properties along Prospect that they now can’t use, and the board has allegedly been doing some advanced planning to close Manual High School while skirting around the Open Meetings Act.
Elections are coming up on April 17. Vote wisely.
CJ: Is there an organizational chart for D150 at their website or anywhere on the web?
Karrie you can get to their website at http://www.psd150.org but there isn’t an org chart online.
It was interesting to note that during the discussion of the Hammer and Chumbley increases, Hinton said, in the case of Hammer, that the increase was due in part to increased responsibilities assigned to Hammer. These responsibilities were explained to be the addition of worker’s compensation duties to her job. Hammer’s predecessor, Rick Wolpert, who had been in that position for many years, always had the responsibility for the payroll, insurance, and worker’s comp functions. Interesting that the addition of responsibilities, that had always been assigned to the position, were the reason given for the salary increase.
Chumbley is a similar situation. His predecessors (notably Griffith, Evans, & Neal) all served as the Director of Research, Evaluation & Testing and that included all student assessment responsibilities. The position of Assistant Director was eliminated during the mid-1990s. So, now Chumbley receives an increase because he will be taking over student assessment duties and, oh, by the way, Hinton announced he will be adding adminisdtrative staff to that department in the near future. So much for reducing the number of administrative positions in the Admin Bldg.
Last night’s BOE meeting reminded me of the “what if” or “if only” litany of excuses – if only there wasn’t a particular subgroup represented in the AYP results for a school; if only they had the funds for more early sp ed interventions; etc., etc. They just made excuses for their inability to perform. Mr. Sierra, speaking from the audience, summed it up pretty well when he wondered why they deserved pay raises when they hadn’t delivered the improvements they promised.
One interesting comment was made by a BOE member; that was the district was soon to be identified as a district that had too many minorities pathed into sp ed. During the Griffith/Garrett administrations, the district was audited by OCR and OCR found that #150 tracked a disproportionately high number of minority students (especially males) into special ed, and a disproportionately low number of minority students into the gifted program(s). This is not news. It is just another problem the administration has not addressed and will not, or cannot, fix.
It was also interesting to note that one of the BOE members said, in open session and in front the the television cameras, that they had closed the two schools that were to enter restructuring because of inadequate AYP and failure to successfully implement their improvement plans. So much for the PJSEB’s spin that the knee-jerk conspiracy theorists were out and the District wasn’t closing schools that had to be restructured under NCLB.
I agree with C.J. – vote wisely in April.
C.J., you missed Cahill’s comment that these administrative pay increases would not impact the deficit. When your expenses exceed your revenue you have a deficit. The last time I checked, salaries are a direct expense of doing business. Does Cahill really believe the citizens of Peoria are that gullible?
I think what Cahill is sying that since these salary increases are already in the budget, that the budget would be increased by them,ergo, they would not cause any greater budget increases. But the fallacy in that is: just because they have been budgeted doesn’t mean they have to be implemented, do not give the raises and you will have that much more money in the budget not spent.
Meant to say “that the budget would not be increased by the salary increases”–sorry.
So then, what are Mr. Hannah’s responsibilities that merited him a pay increase of 11% this year?
Were these duties the same and/or add-ons?
And in the PJStar crystal ball, another increase (?11%?) for next year based on what criteria?
What type of evaluation process is used to evaluate salary increases?
No one mentioned any specific reasons for Hannah’s and Fischer’s increases – just that they should be compensated the same.
There wasn’t a formal evaluation instrument for certified administrative staff. Previous superintendents wrote a detailed narrative evaluation for each administrator and pay increases were at the discretion of the superintendent. It seems that when Hannah was promoted, one of his prime responsibilities was to develop and implement evaluation instruments. Haven’t heard or ready anything as to whether or not he completed that assignment. But, maybe blank copies of any and all evaluation instrument forms might be available through a FOIA request.
Come on you people! Why can’t you accept the fact that when your name is King Hinton, and you have the BOE buffaloed by your fine gift of double talk plus your court jestor Cahill is in charge of the books, then what do you expect? Besides the PJSEB supports Hinton and think they can control Peoria – which is especially funny since neither Hinton nor Opinion Editor Bailey even live in Peoria! ^oo^~
District Treasurer Guy Cahill said earlier Monday the total cost of the raises won’t exceed what was budgeted for them earlier this school year and will not affect the deficit.
Where is the total amount in the budget for 2006-2007?
What is the total amount devoted to these retroactive salary increases?
Karrie,
The super detailed and confusing 06-07 budget is posted on the 150 web site. Rather than to post one in a format even the public can follow Hinton/Cahill have presented the ISBE form which is difficult to follow unless you are a professional familiar with that format. Why make it easy for the public to get a grasp on the budget? After all, King Hinton rules with intimidation and practices deception! You heard it again last night from the teacher union reps! Why any union believes they are dealing in good faith with Hinton/Cahill just baffles me! You don’t go to the zoo and believe the snakes are zebras do you?
BTW the 06-07 number in the press is a $6.65 mil deficit, but I have not personally verified that. As for the total amount budgeted for those retroactive salary increases I’m afraid you’ll have to FOIA that. ^oo^~
The name I don’t see on the ballot…or any ballot for that matter is C.J. Summers.
You bitch alot, but don’t do anything about it. If your so perfect and have the answer to everything, run for office. Or do you realize that there really is a silent majority and don’t want to face the humiliation of losing?
Please note that those raises, no matter how sad you think they are, are tied to food service managers in all the schools getting a raise, something they haven’t had in almost 3 years. At least they deserve a raise.
Kat – you raised an important point about Hinton living outside Dist 150 boundaries. At least since the time of Whittaker, the district superintendents (up until Hinton) lived within the #150 boundaries. Superintendents are not required to live within 150, either by the ISBE or BOE policy, but it is past practice. In fact, Dr. Royster was strongly urged to live in #150 and she complied with the BOE’s wishes.
When dealing with labor law, past practice is given almost as much weight as statute or adopted BOE policy. Ask Dave Walvoord how many IELRB arbitrations the district has lost because they deviated from past practice. You will be surprised at at the number.
Why doesn’t Hinton have to follow the same standards that past superintendents were held to? What was good enough for his predecessors should be good enough for him. Seems like a strong case could be made for preferential treatment . . .
The 150 rumor mill is in full swing today. Supposedly, the Director of Purchasing was recently told that her position, and one of the department’s clerical positions, are being eliminated as of 06/30/07 and the department is moving to Ricketts Warehouse as part of the Enterprise Department (under the management of former food service department secretary Debbie Brown).
Perhaps they are implementing some administrative cuts!
Ryan,
there is a silent majority. They don’t give a crap. But this aside, if a member the “vocal minority” talks with a member of the silent majority, they tend to agree. Most people just want to come home from work, prop up their feet and relax, but also want something to be done about….fill in the blank. Who gets the object of the blank accomplished, a surprisingly few number of individuals. I certainly could use another set of hands in any of the many projects I am involved in, so feel free to volunteer and make difference.
Now, CJ. Students are not tracked into special education. There is an elaborate process and quite frankly many are missed. Some have learning disabilities, organic (meaning physiological) issues, and some have mental and/or emotional and/or behavioral issues. The school district has an increasingly large number of BED students, some of which there is little to know means to really educate. I am not sure why the increase in the numbers, but am guessing is primarily based in socio-economic reasons, destruction of any type of value system, and rampant drug use/abuse, a culture of violence, etc. This would account for organic issues, PTSD issues, I would suspect and increase in ADD/ADHD and most certainly behavioral issues and ever serious mental health issuesnow seen in younger children. This truly is not the fault of the school system, meaning the increase in numbers, but our local population in general. I am not quite sure how to educate some of these children. They are simply out of control, physically and verbally aggressive-assaultive and dangerous. Programs designed to educate some of these children are barely warehousing them. These children have little to know homelife-supervision-parenting-adult interaction outside of school. This is a community problem that needs to be addressed by everyone
PrairieCelt,
Interesting that they have decided to let their professional Purchasing Agent go. That lady replaced two full time Purchasing Agents three years ago in a cost saving move. Unbeknownst to most people is that Illinois statues for schools have strigent regulations regarding purchasing. For sake of perspective at least $20 million is spent annually at 150 via sealed bids and documented pricing quotes. They don’t just run to the store and buy material whether it be new textbooks, water heaters or even utilities! Violations of these laws are serious and always come to light as bidders are a vicious bunch and turn on their competitors with vengance. I have to wonder if King Hinton really believes 150 will stay within the laws by shifting that duty to Ms. Brown, a former food services bookkeeper. I believe the BOE had their eyes closed on that move. I further believe Walvoord smacked his lips over the legal fees those violations will generate for his firm! ^oo^~
Kat, what is there to say? A lot of their personnel decisions haven’t been particularly stellar. Remember – Hinton hired his son-in-law, a prison guard, to be the Assistant Director of Human Resources. If that isn’t nepotism, what is? Is Hinton saying that the best background for an HR professional in the district is prison employment? Hope not because that sends a very frightening message . . .