School Committee approves raises

Date: 4/11/2012

April 11, 2012

By G. Michael Dobbs

news@thereminder.com

CHICOPEE — The School Committee approved School Superintendent Richard Rege's five-year contract on April 4 giving Rege a salary of $145,508 through July 18, 2017.

Mayor Michael Bissonnette praised Rege, who has directed the city's schools for seven years, and noted that he has been the subject of recruitment efforts by other schools districts around the state.

The School Committee also approved the contracts of dozens of the administrators, including all of the city's school principals, unanimously with the exception of one person: Joanne Lennon, the director of the school cafeterias. School Committee member Adam Lamontagne voted against Lennon's contract on the basis of the salary offered her.

Lamontagne said after the meeting he believed the sum of $85,049 was too high compared to the same position in neighboring districts and said he thought it should be about $30,000 less. He did praise Lennon for doing a good job, though.

School Committee member Michael Pise explained the contracts were the product of the work of the Salary Task Force. He said the group first addressed the department's union contracts and then looked at the non-union positions. He explained they examined whether or not the job's duties have changed, compared the duties of one job with another and looked at other communities and the pay scales there.

Pise called the effort "a very complex process."

He added there were no raises in 2011.

School Committee members Mary Beth Costello said the increases are "fair raises that won't over-burden the taxpayers."

Bissonnette told the School Committee at its April 4 meeting that long-range plans to move the School Department out of its location on Broadway have been slowed by a vote by the City Council putting on hold an assessment of the structural condition of the former library and the removal of asbestos from that building.

The assessment was the first step in determining if the former library could be the home of city offices and Bissonnette urged the committee and members of the public to speak with the councilors to reconsider allocating the money for this effort.

Bissonnette noted that consolidation of administrative offices within City Hall was part of a plan to better use city buildings. He said the former Chicopee High School is on its way to become a new middle school, the former Telecommunications Building is now being used by maintenance, the former Belcher School will be the temporary home of Chicopee Academy when it leaves the old Chicopee High School space.