Sunday News Editorial
Sunday News
REVOLTING
editorials
A taxpayer uprising overthrew the old board at Manheim Central. Now, it looks as if new members have become what they once despised.
At a time when people are tightening belts and cutting corners, we find it curious that Manheim Central School Board would hand out nearly $164,000 in raises to its administrators. In fact, we find the whole situation in Manheim Central curious. Inexplicable, even.
Wasn't there a taxpayer revolt just two years ago that resulted in five write-in candidates being elected to the school board -- promising to change the status quo in a district that seemed to be in dire need of change? How is it, then, that the status quo not only remains in place but is being rewarded handsomely?
In December, the school board voted to increase administrative pay by $163,900, retroactive to July 2008. Superintendent Carol Saylor went from $134,561 to $155,436. Board members said the Pennsylvania School Boards Association had recommended adjusting the pay scale. But news reports also quoted board members as saying the PSBA recommendations had been for salary changes over five years. The new scale was put into place in a single year.
The board also gave some administrators new titles -- for instance, making the business manager the chief financial officer and the assistant business manager the business manager. The newly minted business manager now makes $90,441, a 33 percent raise. At least two administrators who resigned have been rehired; both have more prestigious titles. George Ioannidis, who had quit as business manager, now makes $125,000 -- $20,000 more than he did previously -- as chief financial officer.
One of the most curious aspects of the drama has been the way school board members have reacted. Board president Dixie Winters responded to criticism of the raises by saying, well, the recession wasn't as bad in December as it is now.Actually, things were pretty bad in December, too. You could look it up.
Ms. Winters actually tried earlier this month to have the raises delayed and to ask the teachers' union to delay taking a contractually set 3.9 percent increase this July. The board took no action on her proposal. And isn't this a case of too little, too late?
Then there's board Vice President Anne Phillips, one of the five write-in candidates backed by the Manheim Central Taxpayers Alliance in 2007. Asked earlier this month by the Lancaster New Era whether she regretted her vote in favor of the administrative pay increases, she was quoted as saying, "I really do not care to discuss the topic with the newspaper."
Heavens, why would an elected official need to be accountable to the voters who put her into office -- voters who expected the candidates they chose to be devoted to fiscal responsibility?
Manheim Central taxpayers have had any number of reasons to question school policy over the last several years -- news that the district had 53 purchasing cards in use by employees, more than any other county district; an unannounced executive session at which the rehiring of Mr. Ioannidis was discussed; sudden plans to close Stiegel Elementary School because of a looming budget deficit; revelations that 17 school administrators had been awarded $40,000 in bonuses for "mentoring" students and five got another $25,000 for good work; a "gag rule" preventing employees from talking about controversial issues.
And now, of course, the administrative pay raises.
Taxpayers might have thought they'd resolved most of their problems after the grass-roots uprising of 2007. Curiously, perhaps not.
Which may make 2009 an interesting year for school board elections in Manheim Central.n
