My Letter to the Record and Landmark

I wrote a letter to the editor of the Record and Landmark regarding the administrative raises. The paper printed my letter in Sunday's paper but they have not posted it on their web site. Therefore I am posting it below. As you can see, I used my previous post as the basis for my letter.

To the Editor:

According to a recent article in the R&L, most ISS administrators have received significant raises for this school year. In addition, over twenty other employees, 'in leadership roles,' received raises as well. This occurred at a time when teachers are asked to do more without any additional compensation.

Superintendent Johnson is quoted as saying that the administrative raises were an attempt to keep talented people in the district. Why is he not interested in keeping talented teachers in the district? Perhaps he thinks that teachers and staff members are just not talented. Or, maybe he is only interested in helping his administrative buddies.

Mr. Johnson also compared the Central Office to the Pentagon saying "you’ve got teachers out there on the front lines doing the hard work every day and they couldn’t be out there doing that hard work if it wasn’t for the support of the central office." I am glad to see that he recognizes the fact that teachers are doing the hard work. But, to paraphrase Mr. Johnson's comments, I would like to see the administrators do their jobs without the support of the teachers. Some people get that. Obviously, Mr. Johnson just doesn't understand that.

Each time something like this happens it gets harder to understand the mentality of the Administration and the School Board. For example, in the same article it is mentioned that I-SS will have to use more than a million dollars of its savings this school year, and officials have warned that more teacher assistants will likely lose their jobs next summer as the central office is pushing for a balanced budget after two years of using the fund balance. But, it is okay to use that money to dole out pay increases to the administrative staff. As others have mentioned, why wasn’t that money used to hire back the teacher assistants who have already lost their jobs due to budget cuts?

Did Mr. Johnson really think that parents and staff would see these raises as a good idea? The next time a teacher needs supplies for the classroom, he or she better not be told there is no money left in the budget. If there is money in the budget for frivolous administrative raises then there is money for classroom supplies.

ISS Administrators Receive Raises

According to an article in Sunday's Statesville Record and Landmark, most ISS administrators have received raises for this school year. Brady Johnson received a $3,544 raise, Drs. Taylor and Hargrave each received an increase of $5565, and Dr. Lesane made off with a $6,716 raise. In addition, over twenty other employees, 'in leadership roles,' received raises as well. All of this at a time when teachers are asked to do more and more without any additional compensation.

Mr. Johnson is quoted as saying that the administrative raises were an attempt to keep talented people in the district. Why is he not interested in keeping talented teachers in the district? Mr Johnson also compared the Central Office to the Pentagon saying "you’ve got teachers out there on the front lines doing the hard work every day and they couldn’t be out there doing that hard work if it wasn’t for the support of the central office." To paraphrase Mr. Johnson's comments, I would like to see the Central Office administrators do their jobs without the support of the teachers. Some people get that. Obviously, Mr. Johnson just doesn't understand that.

Each time something like this happens it gets harder to understand the mentality of the Administrative Staff and of the School board. For example, in the same article it is mentioned that I-SS is planning to use more than a million dollars of its savings this school year, and officials have warned that more teacher assistants will likely lose their jobs next summer as the central office is pushing for a balanced budget after two straight years of using fund balance. But it is Okay to dole out pay increases to the administrative staff.

Did Mr. Johnson really think that parents and staff would think that these raises were a good idea? The next time a teacher needs supplies for the classroom, he or she better not be told there is no money left in the budget. Parents better not be asked to provide items for their child's classroom. If there is money in the budget for frivolous administrative raises then there is money for classroom supplies.