Regional Superintendent Salary Info

While teachers are being laid off, Oyster River School District Superintendent salary tops the charts!

Teachers, para-professionals and service workers are being laid off in our district while top paid administrators in our district are receiving an average increase of ~4%!

Join the discussion and make a comment!

Administration Contracts and School Restructuring

This topic is a placeholder for community members to weigh in regarding the current restructuring going on in the schools. What some people may not understand are the following:

1. Over 20 staff positions are being eliminated. Many of these are direct student facing employees.

2. While our superintendent has just been awarded a new 3 year contract with a ~4% pay RAISE, this restructuring plan has/will be carried out with his proposal and wishes.

3. In addition, our business administrator has been UPGRADED to a 3 year contract as well (previous 8 years were one year contracts) this past December during the severe economic recession WITHOUT involvement from the school board. This position is the ONLY OTHER position along with the superintendent to have a 3 year contract! Coincidentally, the superintendent proposed and recommended this contract change

4. Both superintendent and business administrator are guaranteed a minimum 2.75% pay increases each of the three years.

5. The school board approved 5-2 to enter in the contract with the superintendent WITHOUT properly deliberating or having any written performance evaluation even though it was requested by one school board member.

If you were/are a teacher/staff member in this district, how does the above make you feel? How can you trust that administration and board members are doing the right thing by YOU?!

If you are a resident, how does this affect taxpayer money and overall quality of education for our children? If we are awarding pay raises and guaranteed employment as well as renewals without looking at performance evaluations in administration SAU levels, how can our teachers get the needed resources and budget dollars to directly improve our children's education?

It is this author's opinion that the school board and more intently, the superintendent enact a pay freeze and pay reduction for all administrators/high level staff immediately. I DO SUPPORT fair and equitable pay for our teachers. This is about administration...not teachers!

School Board Article in Fosters

Board reviews, revotes, approves key contracts

By AARON SANBORN
asanbornfosters.com
asanborn@fosters.com
Thursday, February 12, 2009
DURHAM — Despite the legitimacy of the new three-year contracts awarded to the Oyster River School District superintendent and business administrator being called into question, the board again discussed both and approved them Wednesday night.

The public outcry caused some School Board members to question the board's process of having approved the contracts in the first place, resulting in the new vote during Wednesday's board meeting.

Both contracts, which included 3.5 percent pay raises for both Superintendent Howard Colter and Business Administrator Blaine Cox, were originally signed by School Board Chair JoAnn Portalupi, but by no other School Board member.

Durham resident Megan Turnbull questioned whether the board followed proper procedure in November by deliberating the contracts and voting on them. She said meeting minutes from multiple November meetings only mentioned the board finalizing details of Colter's contract and discussing a personnel matter regarding Cox. None of those minutes referenced deliberation or a final vote on the contracts, she said.

"How should this be interpreted?" she asked. "We know Ms. Portalupi signed Mr. Cox's contract on Dec. 3, yet I cannot locate any meeting notes supporting plans to 'finalize the contract' or vote on the contract."

In regards to Colter's contract, the meeting minutes only said that the board voted 7-0 to finalize the details of Colter's contract.

"How should this be read?" she asked. "The board voted to finalize Howard's contract in order to finalize it in the future, or to go ahead and sign it? This needs to be clarified because my interpretation is of the former, not the later, yet, Ms. Portalupi executed this contract on Dec. 10."

Turnbull said she put in multiple Right-to-Know requests seeking to get minutes that referenced deliberation and a vote on the contracts, but only received two e-mails stating the board would reply in greater detail after Wednesday night's meeting.

Other members of the public also demanded the contracts be deliberated in public.

Portalupi said the 7-0 vote to finalize the details of Colter's contract on Nov. 5 in nonpublic session was the night the board approved the contract. Portalupi signed the contract a month later.

"To finalize details of a contract means we're in agreement," she said.

Portalupi said while the board usually votes on the superintendent's contract, it doesn't vote on the contracts of other administrators, like Cox. Instead, it lets Colter have the final say on that.

On Nov. 12, Portalupi said the board listened to Colter's recommendation of signing Cox to a three-year contract and giving him a 3.5 percent raise, but no vote was taken.

"My sense was that at the end of the meeting we agreed with the superintendent's recommendation," she said.

However, two board members said they were confused by the process in approving both contracts and said the language of the minutes didn't reflect them being approved.

Board member Jennifer Rief said she had asked to see a review of Colter during the Nov. 5 meeting and didn't realize the vote to finalize Colter's contract was the "approval" vote.

"How can I commit to a new contract when I've only worked with the superintendent for six months," she said. "I was under the impression we were still in the process of deliberating the contract."

Board Member Kim Clark also said she was under the impression that more deliberation would follow the Nov. 5 meeting.

Because of the conflict within the board, the board decided to once again deliberate and vote on both contracts. The board deliberated in nonpublic session for about 15 minutes and voted in public. The board voted 5-2 to approve Colter's contract with Rief and Clark voting against it.

The board then voted 5-1-1 to approve Cox's contract, with Rief voting against it and Clark abstaining.

Concerns were also raised about the term length of the contracts and the wage increases.

"The right thing to do is to nullify the contracts and revise them with a salary freeze for 2009-2010 and for one-year limits," Turnbull said. "Considering the current economic climate and what other school districts are doing across the country, it is appropriate to freeze our central office administrators' salaries and limit their terms to one year."

Portalupi said the multiyear contracts were necessary to ensure stable leadership in the district and also noted that other districts were looking to hire Cox.

Cox's base salary is now $96,153 and Colter's is $131,435.

Jocelyn O'Quinn For School Board...

This is a public letter from a member of the community running for school board. This blog will accept all letters and comments from all running candidates who wish to publicly write something. Please write to oysterrivercommunity@gmail.com:

Hello,

My name is Jocelyn O’Quinn and I am running for the open Durham school board position in the upcoming election on March 10. As some of you know, I’m not a politician. I’m a mother of two pre-school age children, a community volunteer, a Durham landlord and a business development professional.

My husband and I moved here six years ago because of the Oyster River Cooperative School District. We believe strongly in the public school system and we know that schools succeed only with the support of an engaged community. After attending school board meetings over the last year, I believe that I have the analytical, planning and consensus building skills necessary to improve the quality of education in our district.

If elected, I plan to work to improve our schools through adopting a strategic, academic roadmap that focuses on preparing our students to meet the growing challenges of a global economy. Only through the use of a strategic plan will we be able to adopt academic initiatives that result in positive outcomes for our students and the most return on investment for the community.

Academic excellence has long been a hallmark of the Oyster River Cooperative School District. Our schools are filled with dedicated teachers and supported by an active community. The time has come to leverage that support and if elected, I’ll work to enlist UNH, local businesses and citizens to enhance our curriculum in innovative ways.

And finally, if elected, I’ll work to provide you with the communication, transparency and accountability that you need to support our school district.

Please vote for me on March 10 and join me in ensuring that we provide our students and teachers with the support they need to be successful in the 21st century.

Sincerely,
Jocelyn O’Quinn
Durham, NH

Post Deliberative Session: Getting Ready for March 10th

This past Tuesday's School Board Deliberative Session did not produce the turn out many expected. The snow and cold seemed to keep many at home. Nevertheless, folks like myself came before the Board to ask questions and raise concerns. 

We were touched by a mother who stepped before the Board, with baby in tow, to tell the Board how she will not be able to give her child an Oyster River education because she had been laid off and would have to sell her house as a result. Others expressed concerns surrounding the District's bidding process, planned restructuring and raises for the central office administration. We asked questions about the Board's process to assure fair and prudent spending as well as for greater justification for the proposed warrant articles. One gentleman pointed out how our per pupil spending will be close to $20,000 per pupil; a figure comparable to many college tuition rates.

Indeed, we live in tough economic times, yet does the Board really understand the financial impacts our community faces? Is the Board truly spending every dollar wisely? Are the District priorities clear? Again, what do we value and how should we best spend our tax dollars in order to give our children an education that prepares them well for the future?

As we look in the upcoming School Board election, let's ask our School Board candidates how they would do things differently. How will they strive for greater accountability, communication and transparency? How will they strive toward academic excellence in our District? 

Please share your ideas and concerns. I hope that this blog will become a useful forum to help all of us become educated on the issues and familiar with the candidates prior to the March 10th election.