School salary story calls for clarification

In last week’s story regarding salary increases for Hudson School District administrators, the Star-Observer reported that the district has added administrative positions to the staff in recent years including managers of human resources and financial services, as well as a communications specialist. Salary increases for those positions have not yet been determined.

District Deputy Director Nancy Sweet asked the Star-Observer to clarify that the positions mentioned above are not considered administrative positions but are referred to by the district as “non-administrative” and include managers, coordinators and supervisors, and the communications specialist.

“All of these positions are classified as non-administrative by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction,” wrote Sweet in a memo to the Star-Observer following the story’s publication.

Sweet added that the only administrative positions added by the district in the past five years have been the athletic director (which was upgraded from a coordinator position when the current AD was hired) and a principal for River Crest, the new elementary school opened in 2008.

Sweet said the board is expected to set the salaries for those non-administrative positions at the June school board meeting on June 8.

The Star-Observer also reported that the school board took a voice vote on the salary questions and that the “no dissenting vote was noted,” according to district sources. However, the Star-Observer has been contacted by school member Mark Kaisersatt, who said he did vote against the administrative salary increases. He said he did support the annual increases of 5.4 percent in 2010-11 and 2011-12 for Superintendent Mary Bowen-Eggebraaten in a separate voice vote.

He added that the superintendent informed him that it is “her understanding that with a voice vote, she was not able to state how board members voted.”

Said Kaisersatt, “I fail to grasp the legalities of that, but I want my voting record to be clear to the public. ‘No dissenting vote noted’ was certainly a nice way to put it, but I am always ready to stand behind my vote.”

Tags: school board, education, hudson