Despite Budget Figures, School Administration Not Receiving Large Salary Increases

At first glance, figures from the Manchester School District's budget appear to show that some administrators will receive raises as high as 12 percent when compared to last year. 

But this is not the case, according to Craig Lorentzen, the schools' business administrator, who said that the reallocation of administrative salary funding contributed by a district-managed state institution is the cause of confusion.

The Manchester School District manages Regional Day School (RDS) in Jackson, a tuition-supported institution with its own budget that has served special needs students since 1982.

Because the Manchester School District runs the school for the state, a portion of Manchester administrative salaries come from RDS; the district now will receive less money from RDS, thus causing the apparent salary increase to its 2011-12 budget, Lorentzen said.

"The reason the salary charged to the district seems larger in comparison to last year in the user-friendly budget is because the allocation of these salaries between the district and RDS changed for certain staff members," he said.

Part of salaries for central administration staff, including the directors of curriculum, student and administrative services, special services, and technology, are offset from the RDS budget. The business administrator and superintendent salaries receive a 15 percent contribution from RDS funds.

"When you compare the administrative salaries from year-to-year in the user-friendly budget, the increase looks larger because more salary is being charged to the district than in the prior year," Lorentzen said.

This causes the portion of the salary paid by the district to rise, though the total salary does not increase beyond the contracted 2.75 percent, according to Lorentzen.

A review of the percentage of salaries contributed by RDS to the district for that school's administration "did not reflect the time certain personnel spent on RDS business," Lorentzen said.

"Therefore, in 2011-12, I changed the allocation to reflect the time spent at RDS," he said. "This required me to charge more of these salaries back to the district budget."

For example, while it appeared from the school's user-friendly budget that the salary for the director of curriculum rose from $120,557 in 2010-11 to $134,766 in 2011-12 — a nearly 12 percent increase — the total salary actually rose 2.75 percent.

What changed is where the the money came from, as the RDS budget will contribute $10,000 less to that position in 2011-12.

According to Lorentzen, that meant for 2010-11, using the example of the director of curriculum, that administrator earned a salary of $145,732, with $25,175 paid for by RDS and $120,557 paid for by the district.

For 2011-12, the director of curriculum's total pay rose 2.75 percent to a total of $149,740. Of that $14,974 will be paid for by RDS and $134,766 will come from the district. 

The 2.75 percent increase was standard for administrators, and administrative salaries are comparable to those throughout the state, Lorentzen said. 

Since Manchester taxpayers do not fund RDS and administrators are not paid extra to tend to the school, Lorentzen said that having some administrative salaries offset by RDS "does give taxpayers a bit of a break."

Last year, administrators gave their salary increases back to the district as a pay freeze. Administrators and school staff will not take a pay freeze in 2011-12, Lorentzen said.

A recent change health care benefits will save the district over $1 million, according to Superintendent David Trethaway.

"Our health benefits package was going to increase 20 to 30 percent and there is no way we could have crafted a budget without serious cuts if something wasn’t done," he said in a statement. "Thankfully, all of our employees supported the change."

"This will allow us to maintain all of our programs and staff for next year," Trethaway said.

The , as well as candidates for three board of education seats will be voted on during April 27 elections.