School Board Retains Asst. Supt. Postion, Rescinds Salary Increase
July 2, 2009 at 4:48 pm 4 comments
Following is an email from the Board announcing their response to Monday night’s meeting regarding Jodi Hirschman’s petition to rescind the Asst. Supt. position.
HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON U F S D
Message sent – 7/2/2009
A Follow-up to Monday’s Board of Education Meeting
Dear Hastings Community Member:
On Monday night the Board held an open meeting for community members to share their concerns on the change in position of the district’s current Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Personnel to Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Personnel (CIP). We appreciated the chance to hear directly from many of you and listened to what you said. While the tone and focus of the input varied, many of the comments were quite constructive.
Following that meeting, the Board met in executive session to consider a course of action. The next day, board members met with Dr. Shaps and Dr. Cohen. We have tried to find a balance between the differing perspectives within the community and the educational goals of the District. Based on these inputs, we are keeping the appointment of Dr. Cohen in place, but will not be extending the salary increase that was associated with this promotion. The salary will instead align with that of the current Director position, which is governed by the Administrator’s contract. We appreciate Dr. Cohen’s willingness to take on additional responsibilities without a commensurate salary increase in recognition of the difficult economic situation.
We understand and share the community’s desire for openness on District issues and will work to provide for participation. However, decisions that include personnel issues do not always allow for public discussion. In those cases, the Superintendent, who is charged with leading and managing the schools, and the Board have the responsibility and authority to make decisions. We weigh all the available information and attempt to make the best decisions based on the interests of all involved.
We believe this position has already contributed enormously to the education of our children and to the productive collaboration among administrators and teachers. Dr. Cohen has worked very effectively in the past two years as the Director of CIP. With the additional needs to provide support that will complement and build on the strengths of our new administrators and to upgrade human resource practices in our district, we believe that Dr. Cohen assumes responsibilities consistent with the work of an Assistant Superintendent. Please note that the Assistant Superintendent will not have hiring, firing or disciplinary authority over the principals. That authority, along with their formal evaluations, will remain with the Superintendent.
For those who’d like more information, we can provide examples of recent activities and accomplishments in the District under Dr. Cohen’s guidance and details of her new responsibilities with the administrative team.
Our ongoing intent is to provide a superb educational experience for our children that reflects the values of Hastings and is fiscally responsible, particularly in these difficult economic times. Going forward we will strive to improve communication and relationships between community members and the school district and we ask you to work with us. As always, please feel free to contact Board members if you have questions and concerns.
Thank you,
The Hastings Board of Education
Eileen Baecher
Caryn Campbell
Lindsey Hicks
Donna Laing
Gabrielle Lesser
Jodie Meyer
Wendy Naidich
Posted by Jane Cody
Entry filed under: Administration, Assistant Superintendent Position. Tags: .
1.
Andrew White | July 17, 2009 at 3:53 am
FYI
The school district budget increase this year will be the smallest in decades, just 0.5 percent. Just two years ago the increase was closer to 8.0 percent.
Responsible people make an effort to learn facts before they go on the attack.
The true tax scandal in this village is that there’s been no reassessment in nearly 50 years. Only those who have gotten a building permit have been reassessed, and have thus suffered severe increases. The resulting unequal distribution of the tax burden in Hastings is astonishing.
2.
Judith Hirsch | July 3, 2009 at 2:31 pm
I appreciate the “compromise” of not giving the salary increase but this position still has an EXTREMELY generous salary and will be tenured in 6 months leaving the hastings taxpayer to continually pay for this salary line and pension/benefits! All this with student enrollment going down! We voted on the school budget 5/21, so it is clear to me this decision had to be “in the works”. Very arrogant in my opinion. Also, of course, the board will be hard pressed to keep the teachers contract under control. The unemployment rate is still going up and the fallout is going to continue for the next few years. Next year’s budget vote should be very interesting.
3.
Tim Armacost | July 2, 2009 at 9:58 pm
I think the board made the right decision. I feel concerned, though, that the message the board is getting from the outcry has more to do with transparency than dollars and cents. My personal feeling is not that the board was trying to make an appointment behind my back that I should have known more about – I want to trust the board to make its personnel decisions based on its current needs. The reason I signed the petition was because the board has such an incredibly tin ear to the rising chorus of concern about the taxes in Hastings being out of control. It’s not that they are a little high. They are rising exponentially and no one has a foot on the brake pedal.
Over the seven years that I’ve been here, the board’s only solution to it’s budget desires is to raise taxes. School taxes have eaten an ADDITIONAL 14,000 dollars per year from my family’s income since we moved here, so yes, it makes me furious to see the board tossing someone an 18,000 dollar a year raise. It feels like the board thinks my hard earned income is monopoly money.
This year we got money back from the feds, and the board responded by keeping the tax increase they asked for in the first place, rather than beginning the process of reversing the trend of yearly increases. I think it’s time to get some people with better ideas about how to manage the schools in office.
Tim Armacost
4.
Brian Hurwitz | July 2, 2009 at 7:52 pm
The petition called for rescinding the assistant superintendent position. Clearly, the community does not feel that the position is warranted at this time.
Although the board members may think that by not increasing the salary and leaving the position in place they are compromising-they still don’t’ “get it.” This appointment is symbolic of excess. As I listened to several board members speak at Monday evening’s meeting I realized how out of touch they are with many of the village taxpayers. Unfortunately, I think that by leaving the position in place, the board has set the stage for a contentious budget battle next year.