On Tuesday, June 23rd the Valhalla School board will be giving out some very pricey gifts with your money. 9.5% raises for school administrators including the principals and the athletic director. A $15,000 retirement bonus for Sal Meile and a two year extention on the contract of the Superintendent, a contract that has two more years to run.
Let’s examine each of these gifts:
Administrators are entitled to a 3.5% raise as per their contract. Given the state of the economy, the nearly tripling of local unemployment rates and the fact that they already paid in the mid $100,000-$200,000 range, 3.5% is a very generous raise. But there is more, each building principal gets a stipend to attend regular evening functions in their own buildings. You might expect to see the principal at parent teacher night, but in Valhalla they are paid a $5,000 stipend to be there. So why would the BOE vote to give them an additional raise of 6%? Is it because our SAT scores are so exemplary? They are not. Is it because enrollment is increasing? No enrollment is declining. They are irreplaceable? The last person so gifted, Dr. Ackerman, took the money and left with in a year. No it is because it is not their money. It is like they woke up one day and they were in the philanthropy business.
A $15,000 retirement gift for Sal Meile. Ask yourself, would $15,000 entice you to retire, if you were not already retiring? If you were inclined to retire, would not receiving $15,000 make you inclined to stay? Mr. Meile has already been paid more than $150,000 to run the illegal Westhelp Partnership program. If he stays he will get at least $5,000 to show up at parent teacher night. A $15,000 gift in a year that teacher aids are cut is unconscionable and fiscally irresponsible. Why do we want to entice Mr. Meile to retire? Aren’t the 3rd grade assessments the highlight of Valhalla’s academic records? And how do they offer this to only one person? What about Bob May and Brian Wolfson? Those two might be worth the price. What is this, if not a gift of taxpayer money?
Finally the extension of Ramos Kelly’s contract. Why? She has two more years on the present contract. She is not going anywhere, this is the only district she has ever run and the results of her tenure are disappointing. In a year when most districts returned budgets with no year to year increases our taxes climbed between 4 and 6 % on 80% of the tax base. Our SAT scores are 200 points below neighboring Mt. Pleasant. We rank #30 of all Westchester Districts. Our alumni suffered in the knowledge that her administrators tossed 50 years of their trophies in the trash. There is very little to back up the ever excited feel good rhetoric. So why the extension of a contract that even includes a car to commute to work. No, again this is a gift. She would rather retire in four years than 2 years, and the present board would rather not face her failures.
Where are all the parents who pleaded with the board to somehow find the money necessary to keep teacher aids in the classroom?How do they feel knowing that the board planned to give these gifts all along. This is just another reason why the district needs a budget committee to reveal what is in every budget line item.
I have noticed a jump in traffic on this website this week and I can only attribute that to the interest in the early tenure/ super raise situation.
I apologize that I don’t have the most current Administrator’s contract. I am FOILING for it, I am sure the superintendent will string out compliance in an effort to obfuscate the matter. She always does. So much for transparency, they really should have all contracts on the website. But for the purposes of this discussion, let’s assume that the provisions of the current contract are more or less the same.
My reading of the contract provides that in addition to the automatic raises of 8% 7% and 8% - see paragraph #2. (outrageous for no account government jobs, even more outrageous when you consider to awful state of Valhalla’s SAT placement at #30 in the county) In addition to the automatic raises the BOE can give discretionary raises of up to ANOTHER 6%- see paragraph #6. Possible annual raises of 14 and 13%!! Even in a recession, even when teachers and aids were cut, even as North White Plains taxes climb another 6%.
But as far as we can see, this is done in secret, no raises appear in the minutes, no salary level are defined. No contracts are posted on the district website.
So, rumor has it that these discretionary raises, at least for the newly early tenured position of HS principal, MS principal and Athletic director are on hold. At least until no one is paying attention
The prior administrative contract is so poorly written that it is impossible to tell the exact intent or affect of these discretionary super raises are. My reading is that in fact the board can simply raise the pay of any or all administrators by 13 or 14% every year. There is no formal review process indicated, there is no measure of accountability and these super raises are compounded within each administrators base pay. They are, at least as far as we know, illegally discussed and voted on in secret.
Again, the contract is poorly written, so if these are not super raises, if these do not become part of the administrator’s base pay, I would like to know that.
We hear that the BOE is hastily preparing to give tenure, raises and bonuses to the Athletic Director, the High School Principal and the Middle School Principal. When was that discussed in public?
Good thing there is no accountability. Remember the whole trophy trashing and who was responsible? Who was responsible, who was clueless and who was going to replace the trophies? Let's not forget the precipitous slide in SAT scores, that calls for tenure. And who could overlook the reality of the collapsing economy as real estate prices plunge, people are losing jobs and bonuses are things of the past.
Did anyone see the ever excited Famos Ramos allude to "private" givebacks by administrators at the budget meetings?
So how does that all play against cutting all those teachers and aides?
But parents don't speak up, they hold your children hostage. Be good sheeple and keep your head down.
Apparently they only have one horse left in the race, Joe Garbus. No surprise there, but the criticism of Bill McGuinn and Valhalla traditions certainly was a surprise. I never read that there was scandal and divisivness in Valhalla. It was never covered in the award winning Voyages or on the parade of happy face blogs that the authors of this email tried so deperately to maintain. Perhaps one or two dishonest critics. Certainly Bill McGuinn wasn't tageted in their SWOT analysis like this website, global warming and Al Queda were. To think they would not want to "negate years of progress" that have seen Valhalla High School SAT rankings tumble from 18th to 30th place in the county.
Just when were these bad old days that Mr. McGuinn now represents? Was it when everyone was swooning at the feet of Tom Kelly? Or was it before Tom's arrival when Valhalla ranked in the top half of the county in SAT scoring?
I have certainly disagreed with Mr. McGuinn over the years, but Mr. Garbus seems to say the "We're #30" means things are going quite well and he wants to reallocate dwindling resources resources to the lower grades because those students are not being challenged. Every teacher in Valhalla has a Masters or a Doctorate, and they aren't even challenging the second graders? I guess there is a difference between a degree and being able to teach.
The high school is over funded but with kindergarten enrollment projected to fall 30%, allocating money away from the High School would be a mistake. Garbus talks about dealing with lower overall tax revenue, but when will there be lower tax revenue? My taxes are going up 4% this year, my neighbors in North White Plain by 6%.
It says "From what I observed, the community is quite pleased with the education we provide"
Let’s face it, the cadre of parents showing up at board meetings are there to plead for more spending. In fact, most of what I observed were groups organized and lead by the lower school administrators. One after another they asked for more funding. The board has made every effort to stiffle debate and marginalize dissent. Critics are "dishonest" after all.
Are residents pleased that Valhalla High School is at the bottom of the SAT barrel in Westchester County, buoyed only by the Elmsfords, Mt. Vernons and Yonkers? Are taxpayers pleased to spend $28,000 per student for these results? Are Mt. Pleasnat residents happy with a 4% tax increase in this economy and North White Plains residents pleased with a 6% increase? Is it really all about the third grade assessments?
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means things are going quite well and he wants to reallocate dwindling resources resources to the lower grades because those students are not being challenged. Every teacher in Valhalla has a Masters or a Doctorate, and they aren't even challenging the second graders? I guess there is a difference between a degree and being able to teach.