Salaries Set for New School Administrators

The Salem School Board approved salary figures for 2012-2013 for several new administrators at their meeting Tuesday night.

This included a $109,250 salary for incoming SAU 57 Assistant Superintendent Maura Palmer, a $105,000 salary for incoming Salem High School Principal Tracy Collyer, an $86,000 salary for new Fisk Elementary School Principal George Murray and an $85,000 salary for new SAU 57 Finance Director Deborah Payne.

The salaries for those first three positions were approved by one vote on the board's consent agenda while the new finance director salary was briefly tabled for discussion by the board.

School Board Secretary Peter Morgan took the opportunity to discuss the finance director position and said he believed some of the public perception about it has been "totally incorrect."

Morgan said the position was not simply the brainchild of SAU 57 Superintendent Michael Delahanty and was something discussed by the School Board over the last three or four years.

"It had been suggested by our auditors sometime in the past," Morgan said. "This was not the superintendent's sole initiative. This was a directive of the School Board."

According to Morgan, the school district has been "extremely thinly-staffed in the finance department in order to serve the legal requirements we are under for accounting and various federal grants and programs."

Morgan explained the Budget Committee removed the funding for the position, but that it was made clear to them the position was a priority they would be filling.

"We deliberately chose not to seek restoration of this money at the district meeting because we wanted to focus attention on our collective bargaining agreements and our bond," Morgan said.

This structure would be similar to the structure the town has with its finance department "to take care of a budget that is significantly smaller than the School District budget," Morgan said.

Delahanty reiterated points made by about the unexpected resignations of three teachers at Woodbury Middle School leading to cost savings. Three teaching positions at Woodbury would have been reduced anyway for 2013-2014.

"Rather than continue three positions on a one-year time basis, I made the decision to recommend to the board we not replace those three people," Delahanty said. "That freed up a substantial amount of money for us to fund the director of finance position and still save money overall on what we had proposed in our budget."

Delahanty said next year 6th-grade class sizes will be a little bit higher than usual next year with about 25 in each classroom, which is similar to where they were several years ago.

"It's not outside the range of average for some classes in our district," he said.

School Board member Bernie Campbell said he was "very comfortable" with the new position.

"I believe this is not only in the best interest of the district but the taxpayers as well," Campbell said.

The finance director position was later approved unanimously by the board.