Oregon superintendent s budget cuts deemed inadequate

5/14/2008

Oregon City School administrators are asking teachers and bus drivers to take pay cuts and, in some cases, sacrifice their jobs, but aren t willing to make the same sacrifices themselves, school board members said last night.

The board voted in April to lay off three teachers and cut back on bus driver hours because of a more than $1.2 million deficit the district is facing.

Since teachers and nonteaching personnel were making sacrifices, the board previously ordered Superintendent John Hall to make $100,000 in cuts from the administrative budget that wouldn t directly affect students.

The district employs at least 27 administrators excluding principals and assistant principals who are paid an average annual salary of at least $78,534.

When Mr. Hall last month recommended reassigning a middle school assistant principal to a different position to save $100,000, board members countered that that would have a direct effect on students and ordered him to instead make cuts at the senior administrative level.

Mr. Hall did not attend last night s meeting because he was said to be tending to a sick family member.

But he provided the school board with a list of revised administrative cuts that totaled $100,000.

The list included rehiring an interim principal at a reduced rate, but did not include reducing any senior-level administrative salaries or positions.

Board members Diane Karoly and Jeff Ziviski said Mr. Hall was deliberately ignoring the board s order and the will of taxpayers.

It s disappointing the directions weren t followed, Mrs. Karoly said. These were not the administrative cuts we requested.

We felt there was room at the top to make some administrative-level reductions, Mr. Ziviski said. We had to make additional cuts that will not affect students directly [Mr. Hall] knew the directive.

The board postponed a vote on the recommendations until its next meeting June 10.

Board President Eric Heintschel said Mr. Hall has been selected as a finalist for a superintendent job in Ashland, Ohio.