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.

How do we get a gig like this?

Free car, too!

Apparently, Syracuse City School District Superintendent Sharon Contreras gets paid 204,000 taxpayer dollars annually, just for showing up,   If she does go ahead and actually what she was hired to do, she rakes in even more.

The Syracuse City School District has told 86 teachers and staff they won't have a job next year. At the same time, the school board is considering giving superintendent Sharon Contreras a $10,000 performance bonus. Contreras makes $204,000 a year but under her contract she is eligible for the bonus if she meets goals set by the board.

We suspect the only way a typical Central New York job seeker could land a deal this good is at gunpoint, which if, you think about it, is how the school boards do it.

But wait, there's more!

In addition to her salary, the district will pay Contreras up to $13,000 for moving expenses and travel to and from Syracuse until July 1 and pay half the cost of temporary housing within the city for the first 12 months after she arrives or until she finds a permanent residence.

Once she’s settled in, Contreras will be eligible for a $10,000 bonus the first year if she meets her goals and $15,000 the next two years if she meets her goals.

The district will contribute $12,000 to a tax-sheltered annuity the first year of service, $14,000 the second, and $16,000 the third year.

Other benefits:

• 25 days vacation
• 60 days paid sick leave and family illness leave (78 days the second year and 96 the third year)
• Eight personal days
• Car, or $600 a month automobile allowance
• $300,000 life insurance policy
• $5,000 per year for professional development
• Full benefits for her and her dependents

Trumansburg school cleans house

Trumansburg Central School

After abusing district taxpayers by overtaxing their homes and businesses, two high level administrators in the Finger Lakes' Trumansburg Central School are heading for the exits amid rumors of possible criminal charges.

Trumansburg Central School District will lose two administrators -- one to retirement and one to termination.

Superintendent Paula Hurley will retire on Jan. 2 due to family needs. Former business manager Laura Bellis has been terminated. She has been on paid leave since September 2010, after a comptroller's audit was critical of how reserve funds were managed.

Hurley's husband Bill has already retired from his superintendent's gig at the nearby Newfield school district.  

What is this mismanagement costing struggling district taxpayers?  Paula Hurley's current salary, according to the New York State Teachers Retirement System, is $142,627.00.  

Median family income in the school district is $50,313.  As a percentage of home value, Tompkins County, NY, property taxes rank #32 out of the 3,141 counties in the US.  Time for consolidation?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.