School Business Manager, Special Ed Head Raises Approved

Two Melrose Public Schools administrators will receive $4,000 raises and the School Committee will begin work on adapting the city's salary administration plan for its own administrators and principals, after votes taken Tuesday night.

Greg Zammuto, the school business manager, and Patti White-Lambright, the assistant superintendent for pupil personnel services—the district's special education department—will each receive the raises out of this year's fiscal budget.

Zammuto's salary will increase to $104,918 and White-Lambright's will increase to $110,037. Each raise was approved by a 6-1 vote.

The $8,000 for those raises comes out of the Step-UPS/ERI line item in the budget, which sets aside funding for all Melrose Public Schools employee salary increases and was funded for fiscal 2012 at $341,500. Before the vote, Zammuto told the School Committee that if the raises were approved, "we'll most of the monies (in that line item) as we do every year."

Any surplus in that line item, Zammuto said, depends on how much the district will owe under its sick leave buy-back obligation, which isn't determined until the last day of the school year.

In requesting the raises, Superintendent Joe Casey said neither Zammuto nor White-Lambright have had a raise in the past two years. In a memo to the School Committee, he wrote that both "have yet to receive their FY12 salary increases" and that "these increases are fair and equitable in light of these individuals' experience in the district and in the field of education, their responsibilities and the quality of their job performance."

Mayor Rob Dolan, who sits on the committee by virtue of his office, said that with the raise, Zammuto would continue to be paid less than school business managers in surrounding communities and that other communities have lost school funding, cut teachers or passed overrides.

"We always have to look at long-term solvency ... you only do that when you have a business manager to lead in that direction and allows the superintendent to lead in that direction," Dolan said.

Casey said that the district faces similar cost-control measures within the special education department, building out programs that keep students in district and can lower costs—"not sacrificing students for money, but doing a good job of managing the money. That’s why I’m asking you to pass this raise tonight for (White-Lambright)."

Committee member Christine Casatelli framed the raises as a return on investment.

"These are two positions that if we don't have the right people in them, we could potentially lose tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars," Casatelli said.

Voting against the raises was committee member Carrie Kourkoumelis, who noted that her vote was "not about the individuals" who would receive the raises, but about the budget. She said that numerous initiatives brought forth by the schools' principals—from $400 for a college fair at the high school to $1,300 for English textbooks—were not funded by the School Committee.

"There are a number of things we have not funded, so I can’t support administrative increases until we have addressed the student-based needs that have come before us," she said, adding that she took exception with Casey's memo saying Zammuto and White-Lambright "have yet to receive" their fiscal 2012 raises, "implying that it should be a given they should be getting this."

District Would Prepare To Adapt Salary Plan

The School Committee also unanimously voted Tuesday night, after some questioning over how it would work, to begin drafting policies and procedures that would allow Melrose Public Schools to adapt a version of the city's salary administration plan for principals and non-union administrators.

The city's salary plan defines a series of salary levels, or "steps," for employees, each assigned a salary level and moving on to the next step after an annual performance review.

Casey said that it would provide a structured approached that ties compensation to evaluations, a "consistent process" that "removes the arbitrariness that sometimes finds it way" into determining raises and compensation levels for those who don't have a union contract. The district's plan would be managed by the superintendent along with the business manager, and the policies and procedures would determine how the district places employees at the appropriate salary level; how each job is defined and described; and evaluation ratings.

Kourkoumelis pointed out that there are "substantial differences" between city employees and school employees—for example, the number of days worked, given school vacations and holidays. Casey replied that accounting for those differences would be work done during the drafting of the policies and procedures, in preparation for adopting the district's own salary plan.

Casatelli said the district could not implement the city's current salary plan as-is.

"We have to go through our steps of putting policies and procedures in place so we can adapt, not adopt," she said.

Information is also being gathered from similar communities, Casey said, as far their school salary plans and the ranges of those salaries for various administrative positions.

Dolan said the adoption of a salary administration plan is "attractive" because it's performance-based—adding that the new state has a new mandated evaluation tool—and consistent, giving administrators who consider applying for positions in Melrose Schools a definitive set of numbers they can use to plan. He added that any raises and evaluations considered under the plan would be public documents, with the process "open and clear to the public. Right now the superintendent can distribute raises as he sees fit, based on money set aside.

Kourkoumelis also asked about the potential budget implications of adopting a salary plan, given that each administrator would need to be assigned a new salary level under the plan.

Dolan acknowledged there would be budget implications, ," and that the city could assist with absorbing those costs upfront with the school department taking on those costs in future years. However, he argued that, "if you can hire the best people in the best jobs … your return on investment is a hundred-fold."

Committee member Don Constantine asked if the policies and procedures could allow the superintendent to request raises for administrators who may outperform their salary, such as a first-time principal brought in on a lower salary level who then exceeds expectations. Casey replied that the superintendent would have the ability to make adjustments as needed.

"What you’re really looking for is performance," he said. "There has to be way to award people for good work, but hold people accountable."