The "pickup" and ........."“If someone were to come here as a new principal, I think they would be expecting to get that benefit.”
“Instead of giving more salary, you did this instead,” he said, adding that it is expected. “If someone were to come here as a new principal, I think they would be expecting to get that benefit.”
LIMA — When someone becomes a school administrator in Ohio, it is almost a given that the school board will pay the administrator's share of retirement contributions.
It's not even something negotiated, said area school and state education officials.
“It is 100 percent common. It is an accepted common practice across the state for administrators,” said Hollie Reedy, chief legal counsel for the Ohio School Boards Association. “It's been around for a long time. ... If someone doesn't get it, they are getting something else.”
The practice is getting some recent notice as schools struggle with financial issues and with the news surrounding Senate Bill 5. Along with curtailing rights of unions to engage in collective bargaining, the bill would take away employers' ability to pay employees' share of retirement contributions.
More discussion has revolved around Lima schools, which needs to reduce $3.8 million from its budget. The board spent $356,125 in fiscal year 2010 to pay the expected retirement contributions for 44 employees. It includes the district's top three administrators, anyone under an administrative contract and an executive secretary.
Board President C. Ann Miles said not paying it hasn't been discussed by the board, pointing to increases in health care costs all employees are dealing with. Allen County schools saw a 17.6 percent jump in insurance costs this year.
“It is not something we talked about. We were more concerned with the insurance hit,” said Miles, adding that the district has always paid the retirement.
Lima is not alone. Bluffton Superintendent Greg Denecker said it has always been part of the compensation package for school administrators.
“Instead of giving more salary, you did this instead,” he said, adding that it is expected. “If someone were to come here as a new principal, I think they would be expecting to get that benefit.”
The amount of the payment depends on where the employee is on the salary schedule, Denecker said. Bluffton administrators took a zero percent increase on their base pay this year. Lima administrators are doing the same.
Elida schools began the practice in the late 1990s after administrators had taken a wage freeze. The board added it as a way to catch up instead of adding to salaries, Treasurer Joel Parker said. The program was phased in. It currently costs the district $150,000.
A very few schools in the state have stopped doing it, including Coldwater schools in Mercer County. The district had also paid a small portion of teacher retirements but stopped both five years ago in an effort to be more transparent. It didn't save the district any money.
“There was a concern by the board that people did not know what the true salaries were,” Treasurer Sherry Shaffer said. “Now what they see is what we are getting. It is the same dollar amount, just all up front now.”
Even if Senate Bill 5 becomes law, Reedy doesn't expect districts to see great savings from the retirement pay piece. Administrators know what other schools pay and will expect their salaries to compare.
“Frankly, if a superintendent has received the pick up for five years of employment with the district, when he re-negotiates his contract and the board is no longer able to pay that, he is probably going to ask for that in some other way,” she said.
You can comment on this story at www.limaohio.com.
posted by Kathie Bracy at 10:02 PM
<< Home