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Gold questions raises in schools

Date: 9/12/2011

Sept. 12, 2011

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

LONGMEADOW — Select Board Chair Mark Gold called into question the budgeting practices of the School Committee, specifically in regards to recent raises and promotions within the School Department at the Select Board’s Sept. 6 meeting.

Gold alleged that the School Committee did not act in good faith and padded line items during the budgeting process in order to distribute thousands of dollars in raises to Superintendent Marie Doyle, Technology Director Kevin Warenda, Assistant Superintendent for Business Thomas Mazza and Michael Sullivan, assistant superintendent for learning.

“Three times in the past 15 months, between the budget approval at Town Meeting and the first day of school, the School Committee voted changes to their line item budget,” Gold said. “What this did was move a total of $50,000, in each case tens of thousands of dollars at a time, from lines in the budget that were — in theory — already pared to the bare essentials necessary to provide appropriate levels of educational services to our students.”

Gold conceded that line item shifts are legal and sometimes necessary, but expressed concern and suspicion that so early into the fiscal year it was determined that monies could be shifted.

“Barely weeks into the fiscal year, before a book was distributed in a classroom, two different school committees apparently determined that several of their budget lines had sufficiently excess funds such that they could be reduced by these tens of thousands of dollars,” he said.

In response to Gold’s allegations, School Committee Chair Jennifer Jester told Reminder Publications that the School Committee was “very surprised” by the Select Board chair’s allegations and added that they have “no merit whatsoever.”

“There was no padding of line items in order to move money around later,” Jester said. “It doesn’t make sense and doing that would not be operating in the transparent manner in which we operate.

“As Mr. Gold said himself, line item transfers are a legitimate and legal mechanism at the School Committee’s disposal. Longmeadow has 400 staff members and administrators and we have to make educated estimates on attrition, retirement and other staffing issues and there are times when we do need to make legitimate line item transfers during the fiscal year.

“In our case, the policy for that kind of transfer requires School Committee approval, which is not the case in other communities. It is done publicly and with transparency,” she continued.

Gold alleged that the town approved a salary of $130,000 for Doyle, then shifted an additional $25,000 from line items to fund her current salary of $155,000. The contract for $155,000, he said, was signed three to four weeks before the budget was approved for a $130,000 superintendent’s salary.

Jester said that the budget originally called for a salary of $135,000 in February 2010, but in March the School Committee unanimously voted to increase the salary within the budget to $155,000, based on the search committee’s recommendation and no line item transfer was ever required for Doyle’s salary.

Gold also said that “tens of thousands of dollars was used from the supplemental salary appropriation that was intended to fund collective bargaining unit raises as passed at a special town meeting, along with increased revenue from special education and school choice” to fund a $15,000 salary increase for Warenda and a $12,000 raise for Sullivan.

According to Jester, while the initial fiscal year 2012 budget suggested a raise for Warenda of $15,000 for taking on the added responsibility associated with the consolidation of the school and town Information Technology departments, the actual increase was $10,000. She added that no line item shift occurred for that raise either, as it was included in the budget.

Sullivan’s salary was increased to reflect a standard rate of pay for a comparable position at another district and also did not require a line item shift, Jester said. Sullivan had recently been promoted from principal of Glenbrook Middle School to assistant superintendent.

“Marie Doyle has been very focused on aligning our curriculum to make sure it meets the common core standards,” Jester said. “So what was formerly the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction was transferred to the title of assistant superintendent of learning. His original salary was $87,500, but the budget revised in June reflected a raise to $99,500.”

However, Gold insisted that while both salary increases were included in the initial budget, they were eliminated by the Select Board in the budget voted upon at Town Meeting, but somehow the raises were still funded.

“These actions are disconcerting because, to me, they demonstrate a disdain for the budgeting process of the town of Longmeadow,” he said. “The fact that the changes were made to the budget so soon after the town meeting’s approval of that budget, and in at least one case to reinstate increases that were specifically removed to the budget prior to its approval by town residents continues to be my opinion.”

Gold also cited a line item shift to fund a $7,000 raise recently approved by the School Committee for Mazza, whose job title has shifted from Business Manager to Assistant Superintendent for Business.

Jester called the raise from $92,600 to $99,500 as a necessary bump in order to keep Mazza’s salary comparable to those in similar districts with the same job title. She also added that a line item shift from the “other administrative salary” line would be needed to fund the raise, but that transfer had not occurred.”

“Before the School Committee voted to approve this, we requested from the School Department a study of what business managers in surrounding districts were making,” she said. “We found that Mr. Mazza was drastically on the lower end. Compared to one district, he made $24,000 less and the average salary was around $106,000.”

Gold said that while some may find his accusations provocative, his goal in making these claims is to “start an extended dialogue regarding our budgeting process and our accountability to those who are paying our bills.”

Jester said that because the School Committee feels Gold’s allegations are baseless, they will continue to operate in the manner they have been.

“We completely disagree with Mr. Gold and we will continue to operate in a transparent manner,” she said. “We are again approaching the budgeting process and we look forward to working with Mr. Gold and the Finance Committee.”



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