School board keeps principal salary schedule

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

High-school principals in the city schools will continue to earn between $79,300 and $93,400 with the possibility of new candidates earning more through negotiation.

“I would ask you not to drop $12,000 into the laps of two people we already have,” Brenda Kimble, school board vice president, told Superintendent Connie Hathorn at a special school board meeting Monday. “If you have to negotiate, come back to us.”

Last week, the school board rejected a resolution proposed by Hathorn to raise the high-school principal salary schedule by $2,000 per step. That would make the range from $81,333 to $95,436 annually depending on years of service and educational attainment.

Hathorn said the Youngs-town Schools Academic Distress Commission directed him to make the salary schedule competitive in an effort to attract highly qualified candidates.

The district must fill the Chaney principal slot for next year after the contract for the woman who served in that job this school year wasn’t renewed.

The board rejected the measure, however, saying the district can’t afford it.

Late last week, the commission passed a resolution calling for the high-school principal salary range to be raised even higher, from $95,000 to $105,000 annually. That was based on the national average of principals earning 1.5 percent higher than the highest-paid teacher. In Youngstown, the highest-paid teacher earns $69,000.

Atty. Ted Roberts, the school board’s legal counsel, said the commission’s resolution is a recommendation, not an order.

He urged collaboration between the board and the commission.

“If there can be some type of working together rather than dissension, I would encourage that,” Roberts said.

Board members didn’t vote on the recommendation.

Ronald Shadd, board member, asked if the commission considered the district’s financial position before passing the resolution.

Treasurer James Reinhard said with the district’s $100 million budget, the money is there if it’s deemed a priority.

“Their priority is to bring in qualified principals,” Reinhard said. “They were told by the district, based on what we pay, the district was not able to attract qualified principals.”

The principal is an impact position in a school, Reinhard said.

Adrienne O’Neill, commission chairwoman, said the board’s inaction may not matter.

“[I]t may be that the outcome is the same, i.e., the superintendent said to us that he had difficulty finding candidates that would accept the current salary,” she said in an email Monday evening. “Our academic monitor also told us that the response he had when he was recruiting candidates for the superintendent to interview was that they would not come for the existing salary. That was why we wanted the salary raised — to address the issue raised by the superintendent.

“We were told that outstanding candidates are interested in the positions of high-school principal in Youngstown, and our interest would be what it always is — finding the very best candidate for the positions that are open and not to constrain the search by a comparably low salary,” O’Neill wrote. “If the board is willing to address the salary issue and negotiate with the candidate, then there may be no problem unless the ADC [Academic Distress Commission] attorney thinks differently from the board’s attorney. And, regardless of all of the foregoing, it still remains true that the ADC could appoint the principal recommended by the superintendent if the board did not.”

Michael Murphy, board member, said the commission may be looking at the district’s finances now but not considering the effect of all employee raises in a few years.

Shadd asked Hathorn what’s considered a “highly qualified” principal.

Hathorn said that besides the state principal’s license, he’s looking for candidates who know how to run a school and deal with students, parents and the community.

Jacqueline Adair, board member, worries that raising the principals’ salary will make the teachers union more likely to ask for higher wages in their next contract.

“It will have a snowball effect,” she said. “We’re told more money needs to be spent in the classroom. This is not in the classroom.”