[JHeath]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=43022.81

1/23/2008 11:53:00 AM
MCAS Raises Draw Some Ire

Deborah Sederberg
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - The Michigan City Area Schools board gave 2.5 percent raises to administrators, the superintendent and secretaries, but not without a bit of discussion, at Tuesday night's meeting.

The board approved a contract with the Michigan City Educational Employees Association, which represents secretaries and support staff. Business Manager Theo Boone said the contract represented months of negotiation.

"Is there anything different from the contract we agreed upon on Aug. 28?" board member Jim Kintzele asked.

Salary is the only change, Boone assured him.

"What about insurance?"

School Board attorney Marsha Volk Bugalla said this contract makes no change to insurance for this year, but said the insurance committee, established last month, is taking a look at insurance for the whole corporation.

The board approved the salary raise.

More questions were raised when discussion turned to raises for administrators, including Super-intendent Michael Harding, who was absent from the meeting because of a family illness.

The administration recommended a 2.5 percent raise for administrators and supervisory personnel.

Board member Beryle Burgwald thought it odd to give raises to a group of administrators.

"I believe you are treating administrators as if they represent a management bargaining unit, a contradiction in terms," he said.

What's more, he said, the superintendent is paid $118,000 per year, "and I haven't a lot of sympathy for people (earning) six figures."

Kintzele, who has had experience in negotiating, said, "In my many years of negotiating, I have never given administrators a raise before he deals with the workers."

He was referring to the unresolved contract with the teachers.

"(Giving them a raise) is like saying to administrators who have been here less than a year, you get a raise before the teachers who have been with us for 30 years."

Clyde Zeek, board president and a former school superintendent, supported the group raise for administrators.

"With regard to the administrators, it is a team effort," he said.

With Burgwald and Kintzele voting against the measure, the board agreed to the raises for the administrators.

[Southsider2k12]

Hey look, we at CBTL have obtained a picture of one of the board members casting their vote!

[JHeath]

How can they possibly justify a raise for any administrator when the front lines (classroom aides) are being cut in the classrooms? Or when programs don't have enough money to survive? I can understand that the secretaries need a raise...they do a LOT of work for very little pay. But the admin & Harding? Come on...