WEATHERSFIELD SCHOOLS Teachers criticize raises that administrators got

One board member said administrators work 80 more days a year.
By MARY R. SMITH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MINERAL RIDGE -- Teachers in the Weathersfield school district don't like the large raises the school board gave some administrators in September.
At the board meeting Wednesday, board member Douglas Darnall was asked to address the issue.
Teachers at the session were critical of the raises because they amounted to a larger percent than the raises given teachers. One of them said the board had "shot down the morale of the teachers."
Teachers received a $250 signing bonus for 2004-05, a 2-percent pay increase for 2005-06 and a 2.25-percent increase for 2006-07.
Teachers said the district's starting salary for teachers is the second lowest in Trumbull County.
Darnall and board member Fred McCandless said the teachers' new two-year contract will cost the district $746,896 a year. They added that increases given to the administrators would not be enough to pay one teacher.
Darnall added that teachers work 180 days while administrators work 260 days a year.
Specific case
Darnall also specifically referred to Treasurer Angela Lewis, who was given a $5,750 raise retroactive to Jan. 1, 2005, which amounted to 12.1 percent, and a $12,750 raise starting Jan. 1, 2006, which is a 13.2-percent increase.
She had been making $47,250. In January 2006, she will be at $60,000 a year, about $1,000 above the county average for treasurers. By way of comparison, the board noted, the top of the pay scale for teachers is $57,000.
Darnall said that Lewis is required to do highly technical work. He also added Lewis is a CPA and has worked with the state as an auditor.
He added that Superintendent Michael Hanshaw is the lowest paid superintendent in the county, even with the raise he received last month, which will put him at $69,000 a year.
He said the average is $84,000 a year. He also said that probably makes Hanshaw the fifth- or sixth-lowest paid superintendent in the state, which has 611 districts.
McCandless said the average pay is $45,000 for teachers in the district, and if supplemental contracts are added in, the average is $47,000.