HERMITAGE SCHOOLS Board OKs agreement with raises

The average administrator's salary is $70,000 a year.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Administrators, business office staff and secretaries in the Hermitage School District could be getting pay raises of more than 11.3 percent over the next three years.
Whether they will all get the raises and the exact percentage each will get this year haven't been determined.
The school board approved a general three-year agreement for those groups of employees, setting maximum allowable pay increases each year on a percentage basis.
However, the board said Superintendent Karen Ionta will make the determination as to how much each employee will actually get.
On the list
The list includes six principals, the director of administrative services, business office employees and secretaries who are considered confidential employees who are exempt from union membership.
The school board said the group can get the same percentage increase as approved in a new teacher contract that was retroactive to July 1, 2001.
That pact provides average wage increase of 3.92 percent in the first year, 3.77 percent in the second and 3.63 percent in the third.
Duane Piccirilli, board president, said the maximum allowable increases for the administrators and others are set at those same levels but Ionta will evaluate all of those involved to determine the actual amount.
The average administrator salary in Hermitage is about $70,000, making the maximum possible annual increase about $2,800, Piccirilli said.
The school board had the same arrangement with former superintendent Dr. Louis Mastrian, and the superintendent's decision doesn't have to come back to the school board for ratification, he said.