By Deepa SeetharamanThe Daily Northwestern
Salary increases for retiring administrators at Evanston Township High School have triggered parent outrage after years of budget deficits and programming cuts.
Although the raises will be illegal in the coming years, parents in the district say it won’t be soon enough for their students to benefit.
Pay increases are given to all teachers and administrators age 55 and older after they announce retirement. The increases range from 10 to 30 percent, depending on the retiree’s age and years of service.
The end-of-tenure salary increases have been “right in line” with other schools in the district, said superintendent Eric Witherspoon. The raises are “not unique to Evanston and common in the North Shore.”
Until now Illinois laws have sanctioned the increases, but last year the state legislature made it illegal. This means that in order to qualify for the raises, teachers and administrators must announce plans to retire by June 2008.
“The legislature passed a law … no longer allowing these pumps,” Witherspoon said. “It’s already over.”
This year five administrators have announced retirement and will benefit from the pay raises, said ETHS business manager Bill Stafford.
The 2005 Illinois State Report Card shows that the average administrator salary at ETHS is $142,266, above the state average of $98,051. A 10-percent raise for this salary totals about $14,000. A 30-percent raise totals more than $40,000.
But after years of deep budget cuts, the pay raises still provoke parental ire. Many blame the district for cutting millions in extracurricular activities while maintaining salary increases.
The salary raises added up to the “amount of money we needed not to cut those programs,” said ETHS parent Trimmy Stammel during an Oct. 26 Parent Teacher Student Association meeting.
After the spring play was cancelled, theater booster parents raised $20,000 to help reinstate the production, she said.
“That money is sitting there doing nothing, because the school, the union can’t play with numbers and help the kids,” Stammel said.
The district is currently working with the teachers union to correct those issues and allocate resources, Witherspoon said.
While the teachers’ raises are contractual, administrators don’t have the same kind of rights and are ineligible for such raises, said Nancy Bruski, an Evanston social worker and former ETHS parent.
“Those four or five people shouldn’t get (raises),” Bruski said during a separate interview. “Why not change the deficit?”
But administrators are promised the raises in an ETHS booklet that outlines administrators’ benefits, Witherspoon said.
The five administrators who have announced retirement are Toni Fischer, director of food services; Assistant Superintendents Laura Cooper and Marilyn Madden; Lynn McAllister, director of the Evening Academy; and Bruce Romain, associate principal for grades 11 and 12.
Reach Deepa Seetharaman at [email protected].
