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| 3/27/2009 12:25:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | GASD board OKs administrative raises
Dissenters call $24G in increases unfair in light of planned job cuts
Jessica Maher
Reporter
The Greater Amsterdam School District Board of Education has approved salary increases for non-bargaining employees and the superintendent in the proposed 2009-10 budget despite making cuts to faculty.
A resolution approving a $5,000 pay increase for Superintendent Thomas Perillo passed 4-3 Wednesday, as did a resolution approving pay increases for other non-bargaining units. President Gina DeRossi and board members Sean Piasecki and Michael Parillo opposed the raises.
Parillo said he could not support a budget that cuts staff, including four custodians and two teacher's aides while retaining pay increases for administration.
"They cut positions I think we need, and they left their raises in there," he said.
The raises for non-bargaining employees, which include Perillo, district treasurer and buildings and grounds supervisor, amount to more than $24,000, according to Board of Education President Gina DeRossi.
During the lengthy discussion held in executive session, some board members proposed decreasing the proposed raises.
"I was willing to have an across the board minimum raise ... we couldn't agree on a flat minimum," said Piasecki.
Also not the majority opinion, according to DeRossi, was voting for each non-bargaining employee individually.
"I wasn't comfortable with all of the recommended raises," said DeRossi. "A couple I thought were too high and some of them too soon ... I felt I had to vote no across the board."
When it comes to voting against Perillo's raise, DeRossi said her decision does not reflect the superintendent's performance.
"I thought it was too high of a rise in this economy," said DeRossi.
Piasecki echoed her sentiment, saying the administrators have done a "phenomenal job."
However, due to the most recent No Child Left Behind list of schools identified as needing improvement, on which GASD appears three times, Piasecki expressed concern at the elimination of a reading coordinator position and two literacy coaches while maintaining the administrative raises.
"I'm having a very difficult time with the positions that were not filled," he said. "Those positions are specific to getting off the list."
While the board did not vote on the list of proposed cuts, the administrative pay increases will be included in the 2009-10 budget for taxpayers. If the budget is voted down by voters and goes to contingency, the pay increases will remain in the budget.
Board member Kevin Bechtel defended his vote by saying it's important for the district to remain competitive, especially with a position becoming vacant from the retirement of Assistant Principal Nellie Bush.
"To give a zero raise would give two messages," said Bechtel. "One, that we're watching money, which is good. But two is that we don't pay our top administration very well."
Attracting quality employees should be a priority of the district, said Bechtel, especially in touch economic times.
"It's tough on everybody," he said. "It's a tough year and hard to feel good about."
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