JR 137
Grandmaster
Let me guess: administrators are getting a decent raise every year, they’re getting good retirement benefits, and there’s more of them than ever before, right? NYS is awful in this regard. A ton of schools have cut positions, the newer contracts have more benefit cuts to them (previous hires are grandfathered in); yet they keep adding admin positions and keeping their benefits and raise percentages. They don’t bring back teaching positions that were “temporarily cut” and unfilled after retirements despite their revenue increase, yet they’re adding administrators. My wife teaches at a smaller high school (about 600 students). There are about 8 positions that remain unfilled at her school (several more at the elementary school too) while the district is allegedly waiting for revenue to increase to fill those positions. The new contract’s raise percentages are lower. Yet the administrators have taken about double the percentage of raises the faculty and staff have gotten. And somehow they’ve created 5 new positions for themselves and a few support staff positions for themselves as well. One of my favorite moves was they created a position oft a guy who retired from a different district. He worked for 3 years, made more money than the highest tiered teachers, and keeps his free family heath insurance plan for life. That was the same year 3 core subject teachers retired and the district didn’t have enough money to fill any of their positions. And they still haven’t 5 years after that guy left, but they’re working on it while creating 2 more new admin positions in the same amount of time.
Gotta love it.
At least there were hardly any administrators at my private school. All we had was a principal; the rest worked in the diocese central office and weren’t paid much more than the teachers. But everyone’s salaries were horrendous. Adjusting and work day hours for the 12 month schedule vs 10 for teachers, admin made less. Over my 8 years there, I got a raise 5 times although I was contractually supposed to get one every year. The most I got was 2% even though the contract stipulated at least 3.5%. Every year we were told they’ll catch up to the contract next year, yet it never happened. When I left I was making almost $4k less than what I was contractually supposed to be making, not including the previous years’ money I lost out on. And every year positions were either eliminated or weren’t filled after people left (retirement or found other jobs). They started combining grades in all special areas and even a few grade levels grades 5 & 6 are in one classroom with one teacher as are grades 3 & 4. Even after the number of teachers has dwindled, the salaries have still stayed the same and raises haven’t been nearly what they’re supposed to be. Enrollment has stayed virtually the same after a big hit several years ago, and tuition has gone up more than salaries have. And the outside the classroom expectations and number of hours have increased significantly.
I visited a few friends last week to catch up. They asked me if I missed it. Simple reply: Not at all. I miss my coworkers and the students, but nothing else. It’s so much different working for a company that treats me very well. Funny thing is a lot of people at my current job have no clue how great they have it. They haven’t been where a lot of other people have been.
