Ann Arbor schools' administrators contract calls for wage freeze during 3-year contract
The Ann Arbor Administrators Association will have a wage freeze for the duration of the three-year contract approved by the Ann Arbor school board last week.
Interim Superintendent Robert Allen said the new contract includes some new contributions to health care from district administrators. Allen said he was waiting on clarification from state of Michigan officials on whether the new contract met the “best practices” set by Gov. Rick Snyder and state lawmakers.
“The options when we went into negotiations were to get savings from health care, wages or a combination of the two,” Allen said. “Through the negotiation process it was determined those savings could be achieved (through both).”
Administrators will not get 2-percent step increases that were part of the last contract, officials said.
District spokesperson Liz Margolis said the contract also changes the timing of administrator evaluations to comply with Race To The Top legislation. Administrators will now be evaluated every year instead of every three years.
Margolis said there is no finalized dollar amount on how much the district will save from the new contract. She said the district is working with its insurance agent to determine the actual savings.
She said it could be about a month until the district can budget the exact savings.
In the previous contract, the salary scale ranged from $85,085 per year for a first-year assistant principal to $125,335 per year for a high school principal serving his or her eighth year.
There are 53 members of the administrators union, which is made up of principals, assistant principals and other building leaders in the Ann Arbor Public Schools.
Mike Madison, the principal at Dicken Elementary School who regularly reports to the school board on behalf of the AAAA, could not be reached for this story.
School board trustees unanimously passed the new contract, which will last until the end of the 2012-13 school year, but a few expressed their desire to see AAAA members take on a larger share of the district’s financial struggles.
Trustee Susan Baskett said she was concerned that there was no reduction in base salary among AAAA members.
“Every unit has given something up toward their pay and everyone should share the pain, and that includes AAAA members,” she said. “I appreciate the hard work they do, however, everyone else is sacrificing.”
Trustee Andy Thomas agreed with Baskett, but he said ending up with a new contract between the district and union and still getting the savings the district was looking for overruled his concerns.
“Given the length of the negotiations that have gone on and the fact that we are getting the financial returns that we originally asked for and that this will contribute toward meeting the threshold set by the state, these factors outweigh my reservations about lack of actual pay decrease,” Thomas said.
Kyle Feldscher covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.
Comments
snapshot
Fri, Jun 3, 2011 : 5:16 a.m.
Way too much money for way too little. Cut deeper.
Carole
Wed, Jun 1, 2011 : 3:10 p.m.
Most everyone else took a reduction in salary or hours, why didn't these administrators have a cut in salary? Maybe it is about time they did.
DonBee
Wed, Jun 1, 2011 : 1:14 p.m.
Based on a per student comparison between Plymouth-Canton and Ann Arbor - the administrative costs in 2009/2010 were $4 Million too high in 2009/2010. This is based on filings both districts made with the State, the data is online on the state web site. If you look at getting into the first quartile (a goal of most businesses) then the administrative costs are $6 million too high. So the answer is a wage freeze, on a contract whose term is for all intents and purposes half over. I guess the School Board feels administration is more important than Classroom Teachers. Sad, so sad.
jns131
Wed, Jun 1, 2011 : 12:39 p.m.
Ok, the teachers took a percentage off to be paid back in 5 years. I would love to see how that is going to be paid back when this is all said and done with when the admin is taking a 3 year pay freeze? O my word....are we going to retro their pay as well? Even if Ann Arbor makes a profit? We need to cut the administrative staff and get rid of overlap. Balais will not do this to save themselves because everyone there is scratching everyone elses back. We privatized food services....that did not save them money. They almost privatized custodians but decided to privatize the buses instead. That did not work. So, what now? Privatize the custodians and eliminate hi school bus runs? Get real Ann Arbor. Administration needs to go bare bones. This is what Plymouth Canton is doing at the end of the year. What a sad day to hear Ann Arbor is too blind to see that they really need to do to ease their budget. I hate to say this, but I really hope they end up having a state manager come in to clean their house and clocks.
greymom
Fri, Jun 3, 2011 : 11:05 a.m.
The sad thing is this- custodial saved the District 1.8 million by the pay cuts and paying more for insurance, which no private company could beat but we still sit and fear losing our jobs. Food service is in the red and making no money- cuts need to come from wasteful spending and higher up folks!! When I was in school we supplied all of our supplies, not the school! We need to get ideas from even the little people!!
cette
Wed, Jun 1, 2011 : 12:19 p.m.
Not much of a concession, them that has, gets in this world.
Lac Court Orilles
Wed, Jun 1, 2011 : 11:58 a.m.
School buildings should be run by rotating committees of teachers rather than administrators who are not in the classrooms. Administration by teachers would build teamwork into the system rather than an arrogant them versus us mentality. A2 Schools should try this if they want to save money.
DonBee
Wed, Jun 1, 2011 : 1:10 p.m.
There are a number of smaller districts in the UP that have only a Superintendent. The buildings are run by the teachers, with one serving as the "Head Teacher".
jns131
Wed, Jun 1, 2011 : 12:40 p.m.
I think some charter schools do this. Isn't this done in Europe? I think so. But what a great idea this would be.
ViSHa
Wed, Jun 1, 2011 : 12:13 p.m.
that is an interesting concept. do you know of someplace that does this and has had success? i completely agree with the "us vs. them" mentality being a problem, although it probably depends more on the principal's personality or style of administering.
keepitbalanced
Wed, Jun 1, 2011 : 11:53 a.m.
A wage freeze does nothing to ease the deficit. This seems to be only a token concession.
greymom
Wed, Jun 1, 2011 : 11:26 a.m.
This just kills me- those who make 40,000 less took up to two dollar pay cut, plus pay a lot more for insurance. There is not a person in each building that can't deal with the kids or work with the parents!!! But, our pay is a whole lot less! WOW!!! I find this sad and unjust!!! We then wonder why people feel the way they do!
Terry Star21
Tue, May 31, 2011 : 11:49 p.m.
Why not freeze the wages until the administrators prove their worth, probably the end of the century - this could put valuable money back for the students ? Most administrators are failed teachers, that realized it was very hard work teaching children. They took the easy way out - yet increased their wages and benefits.
jns131
Thu, Jun 2, 2011 : 2:14 p.m.
Take a look back in time, over a year ago it was mentioned on this web site and thru MEA that the teachers would take a, I believe 5% pay cut and have that paid back to them in 5 years. It was mentioned way back in June. Might want to do some research. I was paying attention because I knew transportation would be axed and it was.
DonBee
Wed, Jun 1, 2011 : 1:08 p.m.
jns131 - Pay cut? There is (according the the budget passed in November for 2010/11 for AAPS) $1.94 Million for step increases in the budget. How does this correspond to a pay cut?
jns131
Wed, Jun 1, 2011 : 12:42 p.m.
Remember this. Teachers took a pay cut to be paid back in 5 years. I'd like to see this done if they have no money to pay them back with. So, I guess with this freeze this is how they are going to pay back the teachers? Interesting.
ViSHa
Tue, May 31, 2011 : 10:29 p.m.
Doesn't matter if they are evaluated every year or every three years, they don't do anything about "problem" administrators anyway.
lynel
Tue, May 31, 2011 : 9:51 p.m.
What the district saves will be eaten up by the cost of the new superintendent and the cost of evaluating AAAA members every year instead of every three years.