Struthers schools treasurer to receive mega pay raise

By Emmalee Torisk | March 22, 2014 at 12:08a.m.

By EMMALEE C. TORISK

STRUTHERS

The annual salary of the school district’s treasurer will jump 27 percent — from $55,000 to $70,000 — beginning Aug. 1.

In addition, per Arthur Ginnetti III’s three-year contract approved by the Struthers Board of Education on Tuesday, it will increase to $72,000 in contractual year 2015, then to $74,000 in 2016 — a 35 percent increase from his current salary.

But this raise is warranted, said Robert Noble, president of the board of education, as it more closely aligns Ginnetti’s salary with the county average of $75,600.

“When we hired him [in December 2011], he had never been a treasurer,” Noble said. “He was inexperienced, but he was an excellent candidate, and we had promised him as he proved himself, we would try to bring his salary up.”

Noble added that during the past three years, Ginnetti “has more than proven himself” with the quality of his work. Not only did Struthers schools have a clean audit for fiscal year 2012 — the audit for fiscal year 2013 has not yet been released — but Ginnetti also has identified numerous cost savings for the district.

Quite frankly, Noble said, the district didn’t want to lose Ginnetti, a graduate of Struthers High School whose “heart is here,” to a higher-paying entity.

“Your treasurer can make or break your system,” Noble said. “If you don’t have somebody that’s on the ball, you can lose a lot of money, or not get the money you should be getting.”

To determine Ginnetti’s new salary, board members compared the salaries of treasurers from a number of area districts, Noble explained. They paid special attention to the districts demographically most like Struthers, such Campbell city schools and Lakeview schools, where in the 2011-12 academic year, the treasurers made $71,848 and $72,805, respectively, according to the Ohio treasurer’s office website.

Ultimately, their research revealed that Ginnetti’s salary was less than many treasurers’ starting wages, and that an increase would simply put his salary “more in line with what others were being paid,” Noble said.

“We felt it was justified,” he added. “We’ve never, ever granted any kind of a raise like that.”