Sunday, June 16, 2013

Dr. Schuster's Employment Contract -- Her Salary and Benefits Seem Excessive

As we were setting up this blog, we gathered various pieces of data and information, including a copy of Dr. Schuster's employment contract.  Posted on the right side of this blog is a Page titled Superintendent Schuster's employment contract.  This contract is the second one the Board of Education has approved for her.  Her first 3 year contract expires on June 30.  This second one is a 2 year extension that expires on June 30, 2015.  You can open up the link and read it in its entirety,  but we wanted to highlight the benefits that we believe the D181 community should be aware of. (A future post will focus on her "performance goals.")

1.  Her base salary for 2013-2014 is $220,747.00.  This is a 3% increase over her 2012-2013 salary of $214,317.25.  Her starting salary in 2010-2011 was $205,000.00, so in 3 years, her base salary has increased by 7.1%.  (How many of us in the private sector have seen such high raises during this economic downturn?)

2.  Her overall monetary benefits package is much higher than the base salary amount.  The Administrators' Salary and Benefits reports posted on the D181 website (click on this link to see the Salary and Benefits reports for the last 4 years -- 2013-2014 not yet posted -- http://www.d181.org/about-district-181/departments/business-office/financial-reports/salaries-and-benefits-reports/index.aspx) establish the following:

      ----  Her 2012-2013 "package" totaled $252,508.39.  This included base salary, pension contribution, medical and dental insurance premiums and life insurance premiums -- all paid with taxpayer dollars.  (It does not, however, reflect some of the other "monetary perks" listed below.) The package total will be higher for the 2013-2014 and we anticipate will near $270,000.

      ----  Her annual pension contribution -- paid by the district --  was $22,236.06 in 2012-2013, $21,269.00 in 2011-2010 and $21,269.00 in 2010-2011.  The pension contribution for 2013-2014 will be even higher than last year, so in 4 years, taxpayer money has funded her pension by over $87,000.00.

3.  Dr. Schuster's contract has many additional perks:

      ----  Dr. Schuster is a 12 month employee of the district (unlike teachers or some administrators who do not work the full 12 months).  While her contract doesn't specify this, the reality is that she does not work on the 104 weekend days.  The District offices are closed on the weekends.

      ----  30 Paid vacation days/year plus all legal holidays.  There are 10 federally recognized legal holidays.  In addition, when the district is closed for Good Friday, she has that day off as well. (If she doesn't use all of her paid vacation days, she can roll up to 5 to be used the following year.)

      ----  17 Paid Sick days/year -- she receives the same number of sick days as teachers with the same amount of service to the District.  Unused sick leave accumulates WITHOUT limit.

      ----  3 of the Paid sick days can be used as Personal Days.

      ----  3 Paid Bereavement leave days

      ----  10 Paid work days to attend professional meetings and continuing education at the local, state and national level.

      ----  Paid membership dues for professional organizations she belongs to.

      ----  Technology devices that other administrators have received, and can be used for personal use as well.  This means she must have a Laptop, I-Pad and I-phone.

      ----  Up to $350 in mileage reimbursement  for "In-District" travel (driving between our schools), plus mileage reimbursement for out of district travel at the IRS rate.

      ----  In addition to health insurance benefits, she receives up to $700 per year to be used towards an annual comprehensive medical examination.

      ----  An additional $500/year to pay for other "wellness" activities, such as a health club membership.
   
4.  Outside of her contract, this summer, and for the last 2 summers, the Board of Education has also allowed all administrators, including Dr. Schuster, to only work 4 day work weeks (on-site).  This year "summer hours" began on June 10 and end on August 2 (see 2/25/13 Board Docs report) which means that she has 8 additional days off. (The Administrators have assured the board that they all work from home on those days, or will work the Friday hours earlier in the week.  We hope this is true, but anyone driving by the Administration building this summer will probably not see cars parked there after 5 p.m. and let's not kid ourselves, people with summer hours do not sit in their homes on Fridays and "work.")

There are 365 days per year.  Dr. Schuster's contract (and recent board actions) give her 78 days off per year, over and above the 104 weekend days.  This means that out of 365 days, she is only required  to work on site 183 days per year -- or 50% of the year.

We are shocked and angered that the District's "leader" has such a "rich" contract.  Are we really getting our money's worth?
   

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Adjusted for her time off, she received annual benefits well in excess of 300,000 per year. Dr. Schuseless has been able to, in the precious few days that she actually drives her Beemer to the district offices and is not tending to her exotic cactus collection at her Arizona hourse, reduce our children's test scores. We have great teachers, it takes a high level of administrative incompetence, in my opinion, to prevent our teachers from performing. But I believe Schuseless has done it.

We are going to see the results of the administration at the high school shortly. Our students are competing with Butler and Avery Coonley kids, kids who are actually challenged by high level curriculums and not the soft balls that she wants. Our kids are going to be in way over their heads.

We all know she should be fired.