The Observation Deck

http://mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article ... 002/NEWS01

A story out of Mansfield entitled: Compensation: School bosses find public service pays off

According to records we checked, the 5 superintendents with the highest compensation packages are:

David Estrop Lakewood $216,813
Joseph Regano Solon $217,199
Deborah Delisle Cleveland Hts./Univ. Hts $242,813
Mark Freeman Shaker Heights $260,579
Eugene Sanders Cleveland $403,955

I find this amazing seeing how the only revue of performance I can find, or more to the point the School Board can find has Dr. Estrop doing a subpar job on many, many levels.

Oddly, they cannot find any of the other "yearly revues."

More to follow.



.

Jim my understanding is that yearly reviews are required of the superintendent and you are not the only one to find it interesting and a bit disturbing that only one has been done in the past five years.

Danielle Masters wrote:Jim my understanding is that yearly reviews are required of the superintendent and you are not the only one to find it interesting and a bit disturbing that only one has been done in the past five years.

Danielle

What I was told by the Board President is that while yearly revues are required. No where does it stipulate "written" revues. This would seem to be that the citizens should start to cry out for transparency from the School Board, which I know some believe in.

That being said I do understand to a certain extent that many of the longer serving board memebers remember when the city would not pass a school levy. The days where massive amounts of efforts were required just to get close to passing a levy. They did not want to go back to those days.

I do feel your frustration when we as citizens, me without children, pass levies to build new buildings, and we see poor handling of problem after problem, such as Franklin School.

I can see many of the good things that Dr. Estrop has done, but to me they are far out weighed by the secrecy, stretching the truth, lone ranger, "where is the camera how do I look" mentality that his administration has become famous for.

Another completely different issue would be how some board members seem set on protecting Dr. Estrop, even after the only review that can be found, and some have said the others were similar or worse. We will never know. Then there is the case of the missing letter. Dr. Estrop's contract was only approved provided he also gave them a letter of resignation(?!). Having heard of these rumors we asked for the letter, and was told it was not in the files. Which can only lead one to wonder where it was, now that we know it existed.

I believe everyone on the school board are very good and very dedicated people. The school board is made of of many of the leaders of the community. However, I think they should work towards greater transparency in the decision making processes. They should reach out more to the community when they do not need money, so that we can better understand when they do.

It seems there are two distinctive thought processes in this town. One is of quiet and backroom deals. Never trust the residents to know anything. Come up with a plan and then use a shadow group to make it appear public and friendly. The other side tries to get residents involved early on, let it be known what is going on, build a healthy consensus and then put it to a vote or make it happen.

FWIW


.

Well, maybe we need some legal counsel regarding transparency, written documentation, and the importance of incorporating said methodologies into school board operations/policies. (need vs want ?) It might be a good refresher class for at least one of our longtime board members.

I believe next year is an election year for a few school board positions.

Hi,
Sorry if this rambles...

Mr. OBryan said: "...would seem to be that the citizens should start to cry out for transparency from the School Board, which I know some believe in."

I couldn't agree more. But please ask for full disclosure of all the benefits, including retirement. As most Americans see organizations stepping away from providing for retirement, our schools offer a supreme package that costs property owners dearly. I don't have the exact figures (would love for a board member to post them here) but I believe our school system pays 23% for retirement of our teachers, administrators and perhaps staff too. So, David Estrop received $216,813 in pay plus $49,866.99 into his retirement fund. WOW. Thats $266,682.99 a year not counting other benefits.

I am all for people being compensated for their job. And perhaps I should be happy that our board has shown such restraint as not providing a private jet (as least I hope we don't). But as our elected officials have decided America's workforce has to compete globally and
American workers have suffered loss of benefits regularly, those that work for the American worker, politicians and school staff protect their benefits.

It was the policy of our county to reassess properties every 3 years. That was because in America property values used to increase. So, they could get more money from the property owner by reassessing his property. But the county has halted that practice now that property is dropping in value. Doesn't seem right to me but they are always out to exploit the taxpayer.

So, If you want to save money, I suggest you go down to the County and get your property reassessed. If you haven't you are paying more for your property taxes than you should. The County is counting on you to be to lazy to go down and force the reduction.

From Mr. Rick Berdine

This was a response to a request for public documents, including any and all evaluations of the Superintendents.

I only have the one formal review that I previously provided. I do not have any others, and employee evaluations/reviews are rarely done in public session, thus not recorded in minutes. Sorry!
Rick Berdine

FWIW



.