<\/p>\n
Board member Amy Carney was adamant against a 2% raise going to SUSD’s top administrators.<\/p>\n
(File photo)<\/p>\n
Deer Valley Unified is hardly the only district around having financial struggles.<\/p>\n
For sudden drama, it\u2019s hard to top Deer Valley, where Superintendent Curtis Finch abruptly resigned after failing to win board approval of a school boundaries change plan.<\/p>\n
But for consistent drama, DVUSD\u2019s neighbor Scottsdale Unified School District might be the leader.<\/p>\n
The last six months of SUSD meetings has been a rollercoaster of anguished school closing votes, optimism over \u201crepurposing\u201d plans, concerns over a massive budget deficit \u2014 and, most recently, hot debate over raises.<\/p>\n
After a weeklong \u201cspring break,\u201d classes at Scottsdale Unified School District resumed March 23.<\/p>\n
This week, SUSD teachers and administrators may have extra-wide smiles, as they will be getting pay bumps in the coming months.<\/p>\n
Other Scottsdale Unified employees, including health and instructional assistants, may not be as happy, after recent board action to slash support staff as a money-saving move.<\/p>\n
At its March 10 meeting, the SUSD Governing Board approved a \u201cproposal from IBN (Interest Based Negotiations) requesting approval for (a) 2% increase for all employee groups.\u201d<\/p>\n
The across-the-board raises going into effect in the fall combine for a $3 million increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a little bit difficult to say we\u2019re cutting positions but also increasing salaries,\u201d commented Heather Cruz, assistant superintendent of Human Resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, I do believe this aligns with our operating principles \u2026 as well as attracting and maintaining staff, which is so important to our students.\u201d<\/p>\n
The vote was 4-1, with Amy Carney staunchly opposed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love to give even more than 2% \u2013 but we just cut social workers,\u201d Carney said, referencing an earlier vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiving a 2% raise to our cabinet and highest level people \u2013 it\u2019s not financially responsible,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n
Compared to relatively small teacher raises, Carney said, \u201cThe directors will be looking at $2,000 to $3,000 raises on their already six-figure salaries.\u201d<\/p>\n
A somewhat reluctant Carine Werner, who often shares Carney\u2019s views, voted for the raises.<\/p>\n
\u201cI support our staff getting raises \u2014 especially at the site level,\u201d Werner said. \u201cThe teachers are amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stating cabinet members are making $150,000-200,000<\/p>\n
But, she added, \u201cIt\u2019s hard to digest when there\u2019s such a big pay disparity between district staff and people working at our schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely unfair to our site staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Responding to a prompt, Cruz noted, \u201cHaving listened to input from the governing board, we did bring forward that cabinet performance pay would be eradicated moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
The agenda item noted \u201cSchool Administrative Position Classifications and Salary Range: Removal of performance pay of $1,500.\u201d<\/p>\n
Board member Matt Pittiinsky commented, \u201cI want to say thank you for that, I value the work of the cabinet.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to a recent state report, SUSD\u2019s average teacher salary was $75,452 \u2014 nearly $10,000 higher than the state average.<\/p>\n
Over the last eight years, SUSD teacher salaries rose by more than 50%; the average Scottsdale Unified teacher made just under $50,000 in 2017.<\/p>\n
In the \u201cadministration\u201d category, SUSD spent $1,146 per student, less than the state average of $1,309 per student \u2014 but higher than SUSD\u2019s peers, who pay $1,048 per student for administration.<\/p>\n
State auditors deemed SUSD administration spending \u201chigh,\u201d relative to the peer average.<\/p>\n
At a Feb. 10 meeting, the district\u2019s chief financial officer stated:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe estimated Maintenance and Operations budget deficit is $7.7 million.\u201d<\/p>\n
The board\u2019s selection of \u201coption 3\u201d was projected to save the district around $6.1 million.<\/p>\n
But, after the 2% raises, the district may have a deficit of around $5 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Board member Amy Carney was adamant against a 2% raise going to SUSD’s top administrators. (File photo) Deer…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":689819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,289115,57531,63460,1589,7600,25535,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-689818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-curtis-finch","tag-deer-valley","tag-deer-valley-unified-school-district","tag-phoenix","tag-scottsdale","tag-scottsdale-unified-school-district","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116311657497294127","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}