After almost a year of negotiations, the Oxford Area Community Schools Board of Education voted 5-1 at the Jan. 13 regular board meeting to approve new one-year contracts for the district’s four central office administrators that included total pay increases ranging from 8.63 percent to 11.48 percent.
“The good things that happen in our district are a reflection of our administration,” said Board President Patti Smith during the meeting. “We feel that we did what was right for our schools, our community and our administration.”
According to the new contracts, the stipends for the central office administration have been removed, new base salaries have been established and a 1.5 percent increase was offered.
Stipends – a term used by the district to describe the annual sums of money previously received in addition to base salaries – for the central office administration, previously were approved by the school board each year after an evaluation of each official was completed by the board. The evaluations were based on a set of goals established each school year. These stipends were $10,000 each for the superintendent and assistant superintendent, and $7,000 each for the curriculum director and human resources director.
After removing the stipends, new base salaries were established for each of the central administrators. Superintendent Virginia Brennan-Kyro’s base salary was increased from the 2002-2003 contract amount of $111,395 to $121,395, Assistant Superintendent Ron Franey’s from $101,655 to $111,655, Curriculum Director Karen Eckert’s from $99,697 to $106,697, and Director of Human Resource Nancy Kammer’s from $93,481 to $100,481. These increases in base salaries range from 7.6 percent to 9.98 percent and incorporated the exact dollar amounts of the previous stipends.
On top of these base amounts, the contracts provide for a 1.5 percent increase, which would bring the final salaries for the 2003-2004 school year to $123,216 for the superintendent, $113,330 for the assistant superintendent, $108,297 for the curriculum director and $101,988 for the human resources director.
During the board meeting, Brennan-Kyro announced that the central office administrators would be donating the 1.5 percent increase back to the district, “thus taking a freeze for this school year.” This amounts to a savings of $6,603 for the district.
“We truly do appreciate the recognition and support that we receive from the board and the district,” she stated during the board meeting.
No mention was made during the actual board meeting of the removal of the administrator stipends or the establishment of new base salaries.
“I feel that we are all heading in the right direction and that our head administrators up here are being the great example for that move,” said board member Anthony Giannola.
“I’ve only been on the board for six months, but it’s been a great eye opener to see everyone and how well they do their jobs,” added board member Doug Myer. “It’s been a true eye opener.”
Board Vice President Lee Barclay was the one member to vote against the contracts.
According to Barclay, he was unhappy with the inclusion of the stipend amounts into the salary bases.
“I don’t think (the central office administrators) are necessarily overpaid for their positions,” clarified Barclay, “I just understood that the stipends were put in there in the first place for extra work, but no one seems to know why they were added. I really just didn’t think the stipends should have been rolled into the salaries.”
“I think they should have done it another way – that was just not the way to get rid of the stipend. I’m not comfortable with handling it that way. I was against the principal of it more than anything, but no one else seemed to have an issue with it.”
Barclay, who was on the personnel committee, said he was given the impression that the overall opinion of the board was that the administrators are actually underpaid. “I think our administration has done an excellent job, and I realize that their pay is actually in the middle for the county, but I don’t like comparing their salaries to schools just around here,” he explained. “I was trying to compare the amounts to schools similar to Oxford.”
“I just wonder if there should have been stipends in the first place.”