Warren schools chief, treasurer work with frozen pay, benefits

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

The Warren Board of Education has frozen the pay and benefits of its superintendent and treasurer for the current school year in anticipation of future possible budget shortfalls, said Robert Faulkner, school board member.

The board froze the pay for Kathryn Hellweg, superintendent, and Angela Lewis, treasurer, last December, said Aaron Schwab, communications director for the district.

Hellweg will continue to make $116,987 this year. She has been superintendent since August 2005. Lewis again will make $91,555. She has worked for the district since May 2006.

Faulkner said the performance of Hellweg and Lewis had nothing to do with the pay freezes. The board conducted its annual evaluation of both administrators in the months after their pay was set.

“They’re extraordinary leaders,” Faulkner said.

Hellweg, he noted, is highly respected in her field and is consulted by educators outside the area on matters dealing with curriculum.

She also had the foresight to begin to organize the students into five groups long before the students were physically moved into the district’s five new buildings, he added.

The move into the Willard K-8 building was accomplished in the middle of the school year over a long weekend, which he termed “unbelievable.”

The board’s official spokesperson, board president Patricia Limperos, did not return calls seeking comment.

The school board released a chart recently showing that the district expects to have positive cash balances through the summer of 2013 but projects a possible deficit starting with the fiscal year that begins July 2013 — in three years.

With the state projecting that it will have a budget shortfall in excess of $5 billion, the school district also needs to be prepared for the possibility that it will lose state funding as well, Faulkner said.

Because the board might have to ask voters for additional money in future years, it is necessary to show the public that the board is being fiscally responsible by enacting a wage freeze at the top. It will be easier to ask other employees to make sacrifices later if leadership has already made a sacrifice, Faulkner said.

In the board’s annual evaluation, it gave Hellweg a score of 2 out of 3 on improving student achievement and a 3 out of 3 on raising expectations.

It rated her a 2.2 out of 3 for her community relations, saying she had become “very visible in the district” in 2009 but urged her to become more “proactive” in dealing with problems.

The board rated her a 2.8 out of 3 for her devotion to her job and a 2.6 out of 3 for presenting a positive image for education but rated her a 2.1 out of 3 for her relationship with the school board.

In 2010, the board said it hoped for a “more open climate both internally and externally,” continued emphasis on education and curriculum and a “better mechanism for dealing with controversial issues ... rather than creating the adversarial relationship [with the public] we have now.”

In the most recent state report cards, the district ranked at academic watch — one step above the lowest level — for the second year.

In the evaluation of Lewis, the board commended her for her knowledge and integrity but noted its concern regarding the relationship between her and Hellweg.

Hellweg’s evaluation similarly noted the board’s concern for the relationship between Hellweg and Lewis and Lewis’ staff.