School Salary Hikes, Bonuses Spark Outcry

By John Voket

Elected town leaders, concerned residents, and town employees who voluntarily accepted wage freezes in light of tight economic times have been vociferously questioning the Board of Education’s 11th-hour award of salary increases, bonuses, and annuities to various school district staff during the school board’s final regular meeting of the fiscal year June 16.

According to Joan Libby, the district’s human resources spokesperson, the school board’s unanimous vote will provide 24 nonunion workers with a 1.5 percent increase in the coming year. In addition, board member Kathleen Chrystie — who is reportedly resigning the board ahead of a move to Europe in the coming weeks — tendered six other motions involving increases, stipends, car allowances, annuities, and contract extensions.

Ms Chrystie also moved a unanimously supported motion denying district transportation director Anthony DiLonardo a salary increase, which board member Anna Wiedemann said was based on Mr DiLonardo’s “failure to meet goals.”

Uncharacteristic criticism over the school board’s actions came first from First Selectman Joe Borst, who cited the sacrifices of all townside union employees who agreed to a wage freeze in the coming year to help minimize taxpayer impact in what he said were “extremely tough economic times.”

“Here we have employees on the townside taking no increase while the Board of Ed is bitching and moaning that they don’t have enough money [to educate] the students,” Mr Borst told The Bee Wednesday. “This shows a lack of team effort — we should all be on the same page.”

Saying he “couldn’t believe my eyes” when he saw the list of motions moving the increases and benefits, the first selectman said he was “very upset” about the outcome.

Town hall workers union representative Karen Szilagyi said she circulated the list of motions among her 38 members and fielded three complaints within hours.

“All [the school board] kept talking about were budget cuts and how badly it would affect the kids, while in the meantime all the town unions stepped up to take zero increases,” Ms Szilagyi said. “While the teachers are getting raises and furlough days, which will be made up next year.

“But town employees will never be able to make up the increases,” she added. “Do you think anyone is going to support doubling town workers’ increases next year to make up the difference?”

Go To The Tape

Board of Finance Chairman John Kortze cited several reports from school officials, whose comments were taped and broadcasted during budget deliberations, saying this year would present the leanest budget in recent memory, and that “district administrators and nonunion staff were going to make sacrifices.”

“They told the taxpayers and their own supporters they were going to take a freeze to help the town,” Mr Kortze said. “What kind of example are they showing?”

Calling the latest sequence of events “a classic example of out and out deception,” the finance board chair called on residents to go to YouTube and view the budget deliberation videos to see for themselves how school officials presented the district’s financial status at the time.

“I’m very disappointed,” Mr Kortze said. “This is a bait and switch if I ever I saw it.”

Selectman Herb Rosenthal, who previously served on the town’s school board and as its chair, said the current awarding of benefits and increases is “...inappropriate in this economic climate.”

“The Board of Selectmen was able to provide taxpayers with a decrease in spending on the general government budget,” Mr Rosenthal pointed out. “I know you can’t control [increases stipulated in] union contracts, but that doesn’t mean you can’t control spending on nonunion benefits.”

Mr Rosenthal was particularly incensed over a what he called a $5,000 bonus for Superintendent Janet Robinson, which the district spokesperson said was provided with no stipulations.

“Dr Robinson can use the $5,000 stipend at her discretion,” Ms Libby said.

Mr Rosenthal said the $5,000 bump for Dr Robinson and school business manager Ronald Bienkowski — who is currently out on a medical leave of absence — were not part of the salary agreement.

“Maybe they voluntarily gave up salary increases,” Mr Rosenthal said, “but [the stipends represent] an increase no matter how you slice it. And just because you got a bonus last year doesn’t mean anything. It should be subject to the economic climate, not on how hard one works.”

Selectman Paul Mangiafico, who served on the school board when Dr Robinson was hired, said he was “very surprised” when he started hearing from constituents about the salary and benefit actions approved as the fiscal year draws to a close next week.

“It seems inconsistent with the atmosphere of fiscal constraint we are in,” Mr Mangiafico said, “and with the idea that bosses should share in the constraints we asked of town and schoolside workers.”

Mr Mangiafico said several callers “were upset,” and that the move by the school board creates a disparity between school and town workers in the area of compensation.

In an email to fellow officials including the selectmen, Legislative Council Chair Will Rodgers, school board Chair Elaine McClure, Mr Mangiafico wrote: “It is an astoundingly hard slap in the face to almost all union members who gave up increases, nonunionized employees on the Town payroll who were told not to expect increases and personnel who lost their positions as a result of financial constraints. This action without any ‘consultation’ with the BoF, LC and BOS is another example of the continued separation that exists between Town and Education leadership. It is a glaring example of inconsistent strategy and execution. It is yet another example of how the ‘management’ does not share in sacrifice with others.”

Why No Consultation?

Selectman Mangiafico also wondered why, given the current fiscal climate, the school board failed to provide any notice of the pending actions, or consult with town leaders before approving the motions.

One answer to that question came from school board member Katherine Fetchick, who said some of the actions were put in front of the board last week for the first time. She said board members in attendance were directed to act on them that night because the contractual obligations had to be fulfilled before June 30 — the end of the fiscal and contract year.

Going through the list of motions, Ms Fetchick addressed her actions on a case by case basis saying that a three percent increase to school facilities director Gino Faiella was warranted.

“He’s been phenomenal,” Ms Fetchick said. “I can site one case where we had a water line project for Head O’ Meadow School in the Capital Improvement Plan for over a million dollars, and Gino was able to complete the entire job for under $20,000.”

Regarding the two percent increase for Dr Robinson’s administrative assistant Kathy June, Ms Fetchick said she personally saw the district worker putting in a lot of extra time outside her scope of responsibility, while offering to take on even more extra work.

On the matter of the zero increase for the transportation director, Ms Fetchick said, “I think our unanimous vote speaks for itself.”

Referring to her support of the overall increases for nonunion workers, Ms Fetchick said “it was hard to not give these people something” when the union employees they had to work beside every day were getting substantially higher raises.

This sentiment was echoed by board member Anna Wiedemann, who said in view of “found money” in the form of district insurance and utility savings nearly offsetting a $1 million finance board cut to the school budget before the 2009 referendum, “we had the funds to do right by our nonunion employees.”

“I’m comfortable with what we did,” Ms Wiedemann said.

In regard to the increase for Mr Faiella, Ms Wiedemann said the facilities director “was worth that and more,” based on the “millions of dollars I believe he has saved the district in the very short time he has been on board.”

Regarding the increase for the superintendent’s administrative aide, Ms Wiedemann said, “Many people have gone above and beyond the call, but Kathy June has gone extraordinarily beyond the scope of her job description.

“I don’t think she asked for, or expected to get a raise,” Ms Wiedemann said.

And to the failure to support an increase for Mr DiLonardo, Ms Wiedemann said her vote reflected the sentiment of all her fellow board members. While school board member Richard Gains referred The Bee to his chair Elaine McClure for comment, neither Ms McClure, board member David Nanavaty, nor Ms Chrystie responded to calls for comment as the newspaper went to press Thursday morning.

School board member Lillian Bittman was absent that evening due to a medical leave.

Added Benefits Outlined

Ms Libby explained that a motion reflecting salary increases for Dr Robinson and Assistant Superintendent Linda Gejda were administrative moves to address a technicality with their pension investments, and that the equivalent offset would be reduced by assigning furlough days to the two top administrators.

The HR representative said both Drs Robinson and Gejda would fulfill their contract requirements despite being assigned the furlough days to offset the value of their respective two percent increases. Ms Libby also explained that the $20,000 annuity awarded to Dr Robinson and the $7,500 annuity awarded to Dr Gejda were “tax sheltered contributions toward their retirement, which would be parked in an investment vehicle of their choice, to be taken, left, or reinvested upon their departure or retirement” from district service.

Speaking to the appearance of disparities between town and school workers, Ms Libby said town employees pay a relatively lower percentage of health care benefits.

“Much lower than ours,” Ms Libby said. “The superintendent pays 20 percent of the cost for her health insurance, while Mr Bienkowski and Dr Gejda pay 17.5 percent.”

Other aspects of the school boards recent motions included one-year contract extensions for Ms Libby, who is a part-timer, Drs Robinson and Gejda, and Mr Bienkowski. Dr Robinson was also voted a $400 monthly car allowance, while Dr Gejda and Mr Bienkowski will receive a $300 monthly car allowance.

Dr Robinson said the stipends, annuities, and car allowances for those who received them were also held to the same amount in the coming year as they were in the current fiscal year.