Canandaigua taxpayers give superintendent $150K to go away

Former Canandaigua Academy

As Finger Lakes students return to school this week, the Daily Messenger uncovers details of  the surprise departure of Canandaigua school superintendent Don Raw.  The $190,000/year administrator announced his retirement as of September 1st.  Unlike many of his fellow Upstate retirees, however, Raw will not have to face his golden years in poverty. 

While Raw’s contract was originally through 2015, he will receive a payment upon his exit. According to the memorandum of agreement between Raw and the school district, Raw will be paid $130,000 “in return for (his) retirement.” A payment of $100,000 was to be made Sept. 1, and the additional $30,000 is scheduled to be paid Jan. 1.

In addition to the $130K payout, Raw will also abscond with another $31,450 in area residents' hard-earned cash.

In exchange for not participating in the health insurance coverage, the district agreed to provide a buyout of the coverage for a lump sum payment of $9,600.

In addition to the $130,000 payout, Raw, who was paid $190,000 a year, will also be paid for 28.3 days of accrued and unused vacation leave, and 145.67 days of unused sick leave. The sick days will be paid at a rate of $150 day, according to the agreement.

In May, the Messenger took an in-depth look at local superintendent compensation.  One often overlooked factor that facilitates outrageous superintendent  compensation is that our local school boards have the ability to fund themselves by collecting taxes at gunpoint.

Juco player fouls out

Central Maine Community College Now Regrets Asking Student Body For Honest Teacher Evaluations

Read the Rumford Meteor.

His mandate is broad, indeed

Oops!

Worried about poor results from New York's most-expensive-in-the-country public schools?  Relax, Andy Cuomo has appointed millionaire vineyard owner Richard Parsons to fix everything.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday that he has named leading education officials to a New York Education Reform Commission to look at ways to improve the state's school system.

Richard Parsons, the retired chairman of Citigroup, will chair the 20-member commission.

The commission's naming comes after Cuomo and state lawmakers agreed in February to a new evaluation system for teachers. He and the Legislature are also deciding whether to make teacher evaluations public.

Cuomo said the "mandate before this commission is broad."

Actually, Parsons is a man who dated a broad.

It's no secret that Citigroup board Chairman Richard Parsons has been working for months to repair the financial giant.

But, until now, even his closest associates didn't know he also was wrestling with a personal crisis - how to tell his wife and three children he has fathered a child with another woman.

Parsons and model-philanthropist MacDella Cooper are the parents of a baby girl named Ella.

Andy, if you want to be president, you'll need to man up to the teachers' unions and support school choice.

Arne Duncan's graduation rate scandal

Duncan ignores kids, consults with Sharpton

In the midst of Syracuse University Basketball's NCAA Tournament run, Barry Obama's "secretary of education," Arne Duncan, decided to attack the Orange and Coach Jim Boeheim:

Pittsburgh – After his team’s victory over UNC Asheville in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim took on another opponent.

Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education.

Duncan singled out Boeheim on Wednesday in a conference call with news reporters about the graduation rates of NCAA basketball tournament teams.

Yes, so-called "educator" Duncan thought he could piggyback on the Tournament's publicity.

A story with Duncan’s comments ran in Thursday’s editions of USA Today and was accompanied by a column that chastised Syracuse for the academic performance within its men’s basketball program.

Coach Boeheim dosen't need our help to reject Duncan's forced shot.  In the post-Ashville press conference, the Coach explained:

Boeheim had one final jab left for Duncan, who played at Harvard.

“I don't think Harvard was punished when Bill Gates left early,’’ Boeheim said. “I don't think they were. I don't think he did too badly. We've also had five or six guys who left early, went to the NBA, played, and came back and graduated. We helped them graduate. We have two or three right now that are very close to graduating who are done playing with their NBA careers.

“So education is paramount to me,’’ he continued. “We want every guy to graduate, and we work very hard on that. So I think it's fair to say that I'm upset right now.’’

The bigger question here is: who is this annoying Duncan and why does have have anything to do with our children's education?  It turns out Duncan was raised among the swells in Chicago's exclusive Hyde Park neighborhood, the same side of the tracks where unrepentant terrorist William Ayers launched Four Dollar Barry's political career.

Duncan played basketball at Harvard University and had a brief professional hardwood career in Australia.  His time after returning to Chicago seems to have found Duncan involved in various non-profits, but Arne had never taught school for a single day at any level when second generation Chicago Democrat machine Mayor Richard M. Daley made him head of Chicago's failing public school system in 2001.  Even fellow Democrats recognize the destruction that Duncan left behind in the Windy City's schools.  New Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former Obama chief of staff, has it in for Arne:

Rahm is still steaming about the contracts negotiated by Daley and Arne Duncan—who was then running CPS and is now the nation’s education secretary—which gave teachers hefty pay increases and a shorter school year. “I know what the teachers got, and I know what the politicians got,” he says, meaning no strike. “But I don’t know what the kids got.”

The Chicago public school system operates seven community colleges.  As head of Chicago's schools, Duncan was responsible for those seven institutions.  What about the graduation rate at Duncan's own legacy college system - why, it's seven percent!

If low graduation and student transfer rates at City Colleges of Chicago don’t start improving, the system’s leaders could lose their jobs. That’s because the formal job responsibilities of the chancellor, presidents and even trustees include graduation rate goals.

Cheryl L. Hyman, chancellor of City Colleges, began a “reinvention” of the system soon after her arrival in 2010. While the seven-college system has long welcomed urban, lower-income students who have few higher education options, Hyman argues that it hasn't done enough to help students graduate and get jobs...

“You cannot continue with a 7 percent graduation rate,” said Rahm Emanuel, Chicago’s mayor, at news conference last summer. “We owe the taxpayers – and most importantly the students – a better community college system.”

In light of the fact that non-educator Duncan is an expert on college graduation rates, we demand he abandon his war on success and resign from the federal government.  Seven Percent Arne needs to return to Chicago to deal with the disaster he left behind.

Local heroin ring linked to higher education industry

Heroin hotbed

The Finger Lakes' heroin crisis was apparently caused by the recent influx of college students:

A Cornell student was arrested along the 500 block of Stewart Avenue Dec. 19 for criminal possession of a “substantial quantity” of heroin, the Ithaca Police Department said.

Keri Blakinger ’11 was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the second degree, a class A-II felony.

The report also makes clear that the reason Blackinger came to the Finger Lakes was to particpate in the area's higher education boom.

Blakinger is a former (Cornell Daily) Sun staff writer. She also previously served as editor of Red Letter Daze and features editor.

Further application of the same logic is available here.

Dancing in the Moonlight

Finger Lakes-connected Sherman Kelly, writer of Dancing in the Moonlight, with all-kid chorus at Newfield Elementary School in Tompkins County, NY.

Kodak shares drop to 48 cents

As Kodak board members abandon ship, renewed bankruptcy rumors sent shares of Rochester's once-mighty Eastman Kodak Company to a new low today.

Shares in photography company Eastman Kodak have tumbled to a new all-time low following a report that the ailing company is getting ready to seek bankruptcy court protection.

The Wall Street Journal said Kodak is preparing for a bankruptcy 11 filing "in the coming weeks" should efforts to sell a trove of digital-imaging patents fall through.

Among the well paid geniuses who ran Kodak into the ground, and the most recent fleeing board member, elite academic Laura D'Andrea Tyson was head of Bill & Hillary Clinton's National Economic Council and 16th Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.  Amazingly, the teflon Tyson is now on deck for a similar position in the Obama administration.

Professor Tyson

CNY school administrators drawing scrutiny

VanMinos

The FBI is carrying out a criminal investigation of the Jordan-Elbridge school district:

The school board also fired its interim superintendent and director of operations after a May 15 Post-Standard article revealed the district had awarded Director of Operations Paula VanMinos a contract that guaranteed her tenure or three years’ salary — $308,000.

The article also revealed that VanMinos had been staying overnight at the apartment of the man who signed the contract, then-interim Superintendent Lawrence Zacher. The district terminated its contract with Zacher. In addition to the FBI probe, the state Comptroller’s Office is in the midst of a nearly yearlong probe of the school district’s finances.

Meanwhile, former Trumansburg school superintendent Cosimo Tangorra, who may have been involved in overtaxing T-burg residents during his stint at the Finger Lakes district, is now being looked at by the State Comptroller's office for the same problem at his new gig over in Ilion, NY.

According to the report, filed on the comptroller’s website on June 13, it stated, “The Board did not adequately monitor its fund balance. Consequently, the District has accumulated approximately $1.95 million in excess funds that should be used to benefit taxpayers by reducing the tax levy, funding necessary reserves, reducing debt, and/or paying one-time expenditures, in accordance with statutory requirements.”

These overpaid bureaucrats are driving our property taxes higher every year, even as our economy has collapsed. It's well past time for taxpayers to get involved.  These scammers work for you.  It may sound as unpleasant as root canal, but you need to attend meetings and ask questions.

Whitey to face death penalty?

 

If he lives long enough, Whitey Bulger, brother of the former president of the University of Massachusetts,  could be executed for murder in either Florida or Oklahoma.

Florida prosecutors say they intend to try captured mobster James "Whitey" Bulger on charges that he ordered the murder of a gambling executive.

Prosecutors in Miami said Thursday that the Boston Irish mob leader remains under indictment for the 1982 murder of jai alai executive John Callahan. Former FBI agent John Connolly was convicted of murder in 2008 for telling Bulger that Callahan was cooperating with investigators looking into Bulger's role in the 1981 slaying of Oklahoma businessman Roger Wheeler.

The Oregonian:  Everything you always wanted to know about Whitey Bulger.

Whitey Bulger nabbed

Longtime Boston area fugitive and FBI most wanted man James"Whitey" Bulger was arrested yesterday in Santa Monica, CA.  Wanted for 19 murders, the sheriff has been on his trail since he vanished in 1994.  Bulger was nabbed only two days after the FBI began running a series of TV spots focusing on Whitey's long time girlfriend and suspected traveling companion Catherine Greig.

Young Whitey

We first became interested in Whitey's story when we learned that while Whitey was on the lam, his brother Billy, a powerful Massachusetts politician, was serving as president of the University of Massachusetts.   As academia became the center of power in the Finger Lakes, we were fascinated with the higher ed - organized crime connection.

Whitey stayed out of prison by corrupting politicians and lawmen with cash and favors.  A lot of Boston characters must be having a rough morning.  Peter Gelzinis speculates in the Boston Herald:

Maybe now we’ll begin to learn how The White Man managed to survive out there for the last 16 years. How did he access all that cash?...

Will he walk into court armed with all kinds of salacious details about the “working arrangement” he had with the FBI? Will Whitey rat out his rat keepers?

Whitey’s return clears the way for our version of the Nuremberg Trials. The man piled up a lot of bodies, and left behind a great many people who long ago gave up on the idea of getting any justice by seeing this man answer for his alleged crimes.

Another baby step towards school merger

At this rate, our grandchildren will be paying 100% of their incomes for superintendents' salaries and merger studies:

The four Seneca County School Systems are broaching the touchy subject of merger in light of ongoing state aid cuts. In July, school Boards for the Romulus, Seneca Falls, South Seneca, and Waterloo districts will be asked to green light a merger feasiblity study.

USA Today ignores state taxes

Print media on the cutting edge

In this morning's USA Today,  Dennis Cauchon reports that Texas' economy is now larger than New York's.

Texas became the USA's second-largest economy during the past decade — displacing New York and perhaps heading one day toward challenging California — in one of the biggest economic shifts in the past half-century.

Cauchon credits the Lone Star State's exceptional growth on good luck and immigration.

"We're growing faster than everyone else, and this trend should last a good while," says economic forecaster Raymond Berryhill of Waco, Texas. His state enjoyed "good fortune and good planning" from having natural resources, immigration and successful technology businesses while avoiding the real estate bubble, he says.

Florida's share of the national economy grew more than any state except Texas as seniors took their wealth south.

We're not professional journalists or licensed economists here, but the fact that, unlike New York, neither Texas nor Florida impose a state income tax on their residents might be relevant to their recent growth.

Update!   Professor Reynolds has more on education in those same two low tax states.

June 6, 1944

Charles Tyner, USCG,  examines his helmet, June 6 ,1944

D-Day, 67 years ago today.

American Cemetery, Normandy, France

The Finger Lakes' Fortunate Few

Working longer hours?  No pay raise?  Pay cut?  Laid off?  Forced retirement?  Property taxes going up every year?

Perhaps you should have applied for this recent CNY  job opening.  The Auburn Citizen provides details on one hell of a compensation package:

Jordan-Elbridge’s new superintendent, James Froio, will make $140,000 annually, but that salary is frozen for the first two years of his three-year contract...

Should there be no position for Froio in a merged district, he is entitled under the contract to one year’s salary and benefits...

Other than his salary and the merger clause, Froio’s other benefits consist of: a $250 per month transportation expense allowance; 20 days vacation per school year; 12 sick leave days each school year; up to five days per school year from his personal illness leave, which is for illness in his immediate family; up to five days leave with pay for bereavement for each death in the immediate family; up to four days per school year for business leave; and 20 holidays.

The district will contribute annually up to $1,500 for Froio to purchase life insurance, disability insurance or to place in a tax-sheltered annuity. The district will also pay 95 percent of individual coverage health insurance premium and 85 percent of the dependent health insurance premium for him and his dependents.

If Froio has a minimum of 10 years service with the district, the district will pay 90 percent of the individual coverage health insurance premium and 80 percent of the dependent health insurance premium for the remainder of Froio’s life.

Froio, if he decides at some point to move to Jordan-Elbridge, will receive $5,000 for moving expenses.

Bold added.  

How can one small CNY school district afford to pay for this gold plated windfall?  They collect the money at the point of a gun, of course.

Left attacking college sports

Duncan, Obama

With the NCAA basketball tournament in full swing, our ruling elites seem to have launched an attack on one of America's last remaining meritocracies.  On March 17, without any constitutional authority, Obama's hand picked Secretary of Education, the annoying Arne Duncan, proclaimed his desire to regulate college basketball.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says schools not on track to graduate at least half of their basketball players should not be allowed to compete in the NCAA men's and women's tournaments.

If such a standard were in place now, three women's teams and 10 men's teams, including traditional powers Syracuse and Purdue, would not be in the tournaments

Central New York's basketball coach reacted quickly. 

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim calls Duncan's proposal "completely nuts."

Unlike almost any other area of modern life, college sports rewards the best, based on wins and losses, period.  Coaches and athletic administrators struggle to put the country's best student-athletes on the the court or on the field.  If a coach were to select a point guard based on anything other skill and ability, he'd soon be looking for another line of work.

You certainly might wonder if your surgeon got behind the scalpel strictly due to her talent and skill, or whether the fact that the governor appointed her uncle to the board of the state university played a role in her admission to medical school.  Yet, politicians still can't influence a basketball player's free throw percentage.  The most powerful of our self anointed elites cannot influence outcomes of college basketball games, and at this time of year that must be driving them nuts.

Now, we suspect not coincidentally, radical leftist Ralph Nader has joined the attack.

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader is calling for the elimination of college athletic scholarships, saying the move is necessary to "de-professionalize" college athletes.

"As we near the exciting conclusion of 'March Madness' -- which would more accurately be described as the 2011 NCAA Professional Basketball Championships -- it's time we step back and finally address the myth of amateurism surrounding big-time college football and basketball in this country," said Nader, whose League of Fans is proposing that the scholarships be replaced with need-based financial aid.

Need based financial aid, of course, is subject to all sorts of political and ideological  agendas.  It's no surprise that Obama, Duncan and Nader would prefer elitist control.

Penn Yan school district to raise taxes, lay off teachers, and pay big bucks to double dipping superintendent

Penn Yan Academy, 1959

Should a Finger Lakes business attempt to raise prices while at the same time reducing services, customers would quickly take their trade elsewhere.  However, the Penn Yan Central School proposes to do just that:

If the Penn Yan School Board approves the 2011-2012 budget presented to it on March 9, the number of school staff posts will be reduced by 22.5 full time positions, class sizes will increase,  fewer courses will be offered each year, some programs and courses will be eliminated and the total property tax levy will increase by 2.88 percent.

The quoted Chronicle-Express article lays out the facts as presented by the school district.  Let's take a minute to look behind the story.  Some statistics harvested from the districts's own website and Education.com, organized for the convenience of South of 5 and 20 readers:

3 school buildings

13 administrators, including superintendent, assistant superintendents, directors, principals, assistant principals

1,770 students

10 students per full time teacher equivalent

$17,683 dollars per student, proposed budget

The US Census Bureau reports the median household income in Yates County, home to the Penn Yan school district, is  $41,577 (2009).  Household income is defined as the sum of mom's salary, dad's salary, Junior's lawn mowing money, and any other income they can bring in.  That said, what are those households paying their employee, the school superintendent?  Once again, from the district website:

On December 8, 2010, the Board of Education of the Penn Yan Central School District approved the appointment of Thomas A. Cox as Interim Superintendent of Schools.   Mr. Cox retired in 2005 as the Superintendent of Schools at Gananda Central School District.  Since that time, he has served in several interim positions in the region.  

The District’s application for temporary employment of Mr. Cox under Section 211 of Retirement and Social Security Law and §80-5.5 of Commissioner’s Regulations has been approved.  In accordance with Retirement and Social Security Law, Mr. Cox is entitled to receive a pension while so employed.  He will be compensated at a per diem salary of $495 per day for the anticipated period of employment from February 5, 2011 through June 30, 2011. (bold added)

We'll leave it to intreped readers to track down the amount of Cox's taxpayer-provided pension, but we suspect it's somewhere north of $41,577 per year.  And that's guarenteed every year for the rest of his life.  As a retiree, perhaps Cox could pitch in by volunteering his services to the district, rather than accepting $495 per day.

"The Cartel" in Seneca Falls Thursday

Americans for Prosperity, an organization recently attacked by Barry Obama, will present the important education documentary "The Cartel" on Thursday in Seneca Falls.  From AFP New York:

In Governor Cuomo’s State of the State Address, he declared that New York State ranks first in spending per student and yet ranks thirty-fourth overall in results.

It is not much better on a national level. American 15-year-olds rank 35th out of 57 countries in math and literacy, behind almost all industrialized nations. Yet the U.S. was the biggest spender at 7.6 percent of GDP, or $1.1 trillion in 2007.

Obviously, we are failing our children in giving them the means to excel in the new global economy. And throwing money at the problem is not the answer.

On Thursday, March 10th, 2011 at 5:30 p.m. at Seneca Falls Library, 47 Cayuga Street, Seneca Falls, NY, there will be a public screening of The Cartel, a documentary that exposes the waste and problems in the public school system. VIEW the movie trailer!

You can register for this free-ticketed event HERE!

More Finger Lakes districts looking to merge?

South Seneca Elementary

Belatedly waking up to shrinking enrollments and tapped out taxpayers, more Finger Lakes school districts are considering consolidation.  We recently noted discussion of a  Seneca County-wide consolidation.  This morning the Ithaca Journal reports another long rumored merger has moved closer to fruition:

Trumansburg Central School District officials are considering merger and resource sharing with the neighboring South Seneca Central School District.

Spurred by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's public push for consolidation of smaller school districts in New York, Trumansburg School Board President Douglas Ann Land and Superintendent Paula Hurley said at last week's school board meeting that they met with South Seneca representatives two weeks ago and began discussion of a possible merger of the districts and, in the nearer term, cooperation on joint services.

Struggling Finger Lakes families are forced to support way too many redundant school administrators.  Last week Governor Andy Cuomo, of all people, shined a light on superintendents' six figure compensation packages.  Consolidation will reduce administrative costs, starting at the top.

During the past decade, Central New York's dwindling private sector workforce has had to produce more while earning less.  Since the private sector is the ultimate source of all government revenue, its time for the public sector to get on the program.  Our government-run schools must learn to produce better results at lower cost, or get out of the way.

Cuomo questions superintendents' pay

 

Governor Andy Cuomo wants to cap New York school superintendents' pay at $175,000 (plus benefits).  Many taxpayers have been shocked to learn how much these seemingly redundant bureaucrats have been raking in.  Of course, the supes themselves are squealing like stuck pigs, pointing out that their average take is only $163,000 (plus benefits).

Rochester D&C commenter JohnQPublic has crunched the numbers and solved the mystery of how Rush-Henrietta Central School can be so generous to its superindendent in these otherwise challenging times:

Compensation per www.seethroughny.net:

- 2008....$189,189
- 2009....$213,040
- 2010....$220,102

PLUS tens of thousands more in benefits!

No wonder! Look who's on the Rush-Henrietta School Board:
- Kris Kringle
- Tooth Fairy
- Easter Bunny
- Lucky the Leprechaun (Board President)

The Board has a big pot-o-gold to give away to the lucky superintendent!

Who knew that Rush-Henrietta Schools were awash in so much extra cash?

Too see the numbers for your local district, go to SeeThroughNY.

School closing in Watkins Glen?

Expensive electronic sign

Public school enrollment in the Finger Lakes has been declining for years.  At the same time, taxpayers are staggering under endless annual budget increases.  

Speaking off the record, experts have confirmed to South of 5 and 20 that our numerous school districts, each with its own highly paid gang of administrators, are ripe for consolidation.  This blog recently reported on consolidation efforts in Seneca County, and now the trend may be spreading to Schuyler:

Superintendent Tom Phillips told the Watkins school board that no decision has been made yet about closing the middle school campus and consolidating, during the Monday, Feb. 7, meeting.

“No, we are not closing the middle school,” he said. However, the district is looking at that as a possible way to save money.

 Details at Observer-Review.