Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Actions speak louder than words

Back in November 2014 I noticed a couple of administrative staff members received bonuses from reading the school board minutes.  This has never happened in the history of De Pere school district and I was curious to the rationale behind the decision, especially in light of receiving a 2% raise that year that worked out to an insulting 20 cents.

So I researched the various board members, and decided to contact the clerk, who also made an appearance that year for education week held in November in our building.  He seemed like an approachable guy.

My initial impression of his response was a bit to touchy-feely for me.  Heavy emphasis along the lines of "Let me assure you that the board and district cares what you do and you are valued... For what its worth, we can't do a damn thing without you."  Blah-blah...

Now to the part relating to my question/concern:

"As you know, and as you made mention to, the salary increases have been frozen, then reinstated to a minimum over the last several years.  As our funding from the state has decreased, we have had to made adjustments and changes in the way we operate.  Slowly, those funds are returning and we are able to show wage increases, thanks to budget work within the district..."

"Now in regards to bonuses, this is something we are looking at in all areas of the district.  I do feel at times if an individual is going about and beyond their normal duties we can support something in the way of a bonus...."

"In this particular case, I felt, along with others, that a bonus was justified.  We are reviewing this with all employees moving forward.  We want to recognize and reward those individuals who have exceeded expectation...."

Almost a year later and no other bonuses have issued to anyone that I can see from reviewing board minutes.

An open records request shows administration received a 4.4 % raise for the 2014-15 school year when compared to data for 2013-14.  Yet the October 20, 2014 school board agenda indicates Support Staff, Teaching Staff, and Administrative Staff salary increases were made the same day, and on all three report 2%.

I had a lot of other dialog with this board member, and unfortunately it all pretty much followed the same district theme of image before accountability.   Suffice to day, I wasn't really impressed with the guy unfortunately, as he gave me a pretty strong indication that he didn't want to hear anymore of what I had to say.

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