News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Retiring Superintendent Judy May declined a raise (see story Page 1).
Shultz will receive an additional $2,000 for the '95-96 year, going from a $48,000-per year salary to $50,000. He will be paid $51,500 in 1997-98. According to May, the pay raise for Shultz fulfilled an agreement made when he was hired a year ago.
Dempsey's salary was raised $4,600, from $57,600 to $62,200. His 1997-98 salary will be $64,066.
All district employees will receive a 3 percent raise in the 1996-97 year.
"Dempsey's raise was to bring him closer to median for administrators of schools his size," board member Harold Gott said.
The raises come at a time when a vise of rising salaries and flat revenues is squeezing programs and staff positions out of the school budget. Wrestling faces the budget ax and one teacher and the physical education specialist at the elementary school have been cut for next year.
Gott acknowledged this, but said that it was unfair to single out the administrators for special sacrifices.
"We've told every other employee in the district that we'll pony up money for them," Gott said. "I don't think it's very fair to say that because we're giving money to someone else, we're not going to give it to you. We've got good administrators and we're going to take care of them," he said.
Connie Morris, who cast the lone vote against the raises, agrees that the administrators do a good job and that they deserve raises. But she believes that the district can't afford them.
Morris also disputes the analysis of board chairman Bill Reed that concluded that the administrators, particularly Dempsey, were underpaid. The board compared the principal's salary to others in high schools with 500-plus students and found it at the low end of the scale.
According to that comparison, Dempsey's current $57,600 salary is below the median $63,000 salary.
Morris argued that the comparison is inaccurate. She compared figures for high schools of up to 499 students and junior high schools of up to 299 students, a picture that, she believes more accurately reflects conditions in Sisters.
That comparison, Morris said, indicated that Sisters' administrators are at or above the median in their pay scale.
According to Morris' analysis, when the figures are combined to reflect the Sisters student population of 350 high school students and 191 in the middle school, the mean principal's salary is $56,489.
"I want it to be clear that regardless of where our administrators are on the pay scale, they do deserve a raise based on merit, not that they're under- paid. That's just not true," Morris said.
The rest of the board disagreed with Morris' salary analysis and its implications.
"Five board members have closely analyzed this, we've talked about it many, many times," said chairman Bill Reed. "I think it is fair to say that four members do not agree with Connie's logic."
Reed said the board considers operating two schools under one roof more work than handling one school of 500-plus students.
Reed argued that the raise for Dempsey, named Oregon Principal of the Year last year, is a bargain.
"If Dempsey were to leave and we were forced to go to the market and recruit a principal of his caliber, we would have to pay far more than we have offered him," Reed said. He said that the raise still leaves Dempsey's salary below the average.
In any case, Morris said, deserved or not, the district cannot afford to pay for the raises. She noted that the board turned down a request from Dempsey this year for $10,000 for a language arts instructor and that there isn't enough money to pay for textbooks.
She fears that the salary increase will cut into funds that should serve the students directly.
"I would rather see the money go in that direction than toward a retroactive raise," Morris said.
District Business Manager Earl Armbruster said the money for the raises will come from money left over from budget accounts for fuel and maintenance expenditures.
A mild winter meant lower fuel costs and lesser expenditures to hire repairs.
Armbruster indicated that the underexpended areas would completely cover the raises.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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