Am i reading correct, he starts out with 25 vacation days in his first year of employment and 12 sick/personal days (personal days aka vacation or whatever).

What is the cost of those 37 days paid days off in his first year of employment? Thank you---and we did hire him at 10K a year more?

In Rochester and across the state teachers are taking wage cuts to help balance the budget. In Michigan and across the nation a huge push is underway to privatize schools to reduce costs. In manufacturing over sea's competition is reducing salaries across the board but in Rochester we grant an 11 % pay increase to a new superintendent. (Fred Clarke $ $172,000 to Robert Shaner $189,000)
When I add the 182 school days + 35 additional work days( 217) and divide it by $189,000 the daily wage is $870.00/day. (And, that doesn't count the traveling reimbursement and personal sick day allowance )Maybe school districts across the state need to start looking for a new place to start making cuts. What do you think?

You hit the nail on the head. 10K more to start for the same work that was done last year.....same...
Many persons in the community were forced to take lower wages and benefits from the schools new contracted services or loose their jobs-and some lost their jobs anyway. They were also forced into paying a lot more in benefits and don't make the money to cover not working all summer.....but we paid 10K just because.....???
When is the school board going to start to realize just whose money they are spending? Not only does the RCS Board need to change, the system needs to be overhauled as well.

As I understand it, the superintendent works year-round - not 182 days. I don't think he gets nearly the scheduled holidays the students and staff do. Many in the administration building (and most administrators in the schools) are 12 month employees so they should have some sort of vacation allowance. His increase in pay is likely (in part) due to the fact that he has a PhD which Fred Clarke did not. I have faith that our Board of Education negotiated the best competitive contract for a high quality leader. We're a strong district and we've persevered through some tough times. I hope that our community will continue to stay informed and involved and give Dr. Shaner the support he needs to "hit the ground running."

There does seem to be something wrong with this picture! My mind starts questioning .....as usual. So, why is there ALEC written legislation being passed that affects teachers' compensation/ benefits/terms/rights and none addressing Administrators' employment contracts? Am I missing something?

Also, for the number crunchers here, I would like clarification on per student allocation. How is it related to property tax line items and why do some districts such as Birmingham have almost twice the per student payout from the school aid fund (12000) vs Rochester (7000)?. I recognize these are not exact but am away from the computer today and was just wondering.

Oh, so much to learn, so little time! When reading this contract I couldn't help thinking about that Jack Nicholsen scene in Broadcast News! "You could start by knocking off a million from your salary"......

Our school teachers are also employed for the year, not Sept-June. If that were the case they would be "part time" . The "superintendent " is not in an office like most are in summer-he/she does not keep at 40+ hr. work week like the private sector-and those in the private sector know, salaried positions are generally 45-60 hrs per week. I hope he does a good job. I don't think we needed to spend the additional 10k from the get go-I also don't think at this time the additional degree brings anything more to the table than what everyone else has in the same position. The scope of the work did not change. The fact he was making 10K less this past year speaks for itself. The private sector has not yet caught up to the school system in work hours, benefits, and pay.

I get very disillusioned when I look at how the numbers get crunched. We spend so much money in administrative salaries while cutting teachers pay, departmental programs, classroom budgets etc. The money spent educating our children gets smaller and smaller while administrative salaries seems to continue to increase while other departments and programs get hacked and discontinued.

Sound familiar?
http://dianeravitch.net/2013/02/02/beware-education-reformers-are-coming-for-your-school-board/

And then of course we could be paying a CEO.......and his/her family..........

http://m.daytondailynews.com/news/news/local-education/charter-schools-pay-off-for-ceos-family/nTWKT/

This contract is a mild improvement over previous contracts, in that it does not have the "rolling" feature that automatically renews the contract annually for another few years.

But what is lacking is a solid termination clause. If this person turns out to be another dud... it would appear that the board is still liable for the compensation for the balance of the contract.

He can be terminated for “Nonfeasance, misfeasance, malfeasance, moral turpitude or financial impropriety.” All of the “feasance” reasons are essentially acts that are either entirely improper, or otherwise unequivocally illegal or completely wrongful. Moral turpitude and financial impropriety are self-explanatory.

Not withstanding the muddy "not arbitrary or capricious" words, there is nothing that speaks to performance.

In other words, he can be completely ineffective, but as long as he behaves himself, he gets his salary for the duration of the agreement.

Because the board was not forthcoming on the Clarke issue, we are left to speculate. But if the board wanted to terminate Clarke under this new contract, it would appear that they would be in the exact same position, and would need to "negotiate" with him, and buyout the contract. It would appear that we learned nothing from that last debacle.

It's amazing to me that we can talk about holding educators accountable, yet ink a deal with the district CEO that has NO accountability.

Mike,
Nicely stated! Given that each of us have differing goals within the district, I am curious as to how you might like to see this contract written. What are the goals of the district and how are they measured? If we are talking exclusively about budget, I am sure we might all all agree on outcome goals. However, when discussing methodology to achieve those goals, I doubt very much that we may find common ground.

For example, I would prefer to not have a Heritage Academies charter school on every corner as is seen in Plymouth/Canton. And I certainly don't want to see class sizes balloon, nor do I want to see kindergarteners in front of computers all day!

Accountability is key! Yes, would agree! Yet, how is it measured? Therein lies the rub!

I do agree we need to give him a chance. If you take a 52 week employee and subtract the weekend...you get 261 days of employment. Then...subtract vacation time. People in the private sector work about 40-50 more days and often earn double. I'm sick of hearing this 180 day nonsense. I can argue that I get laid off every June which limits my ability to earn my full wage.

I am more concerned with Dr, Shaner's role in Warren Con in eliminating electives. Word in Macomb County spread pretty quickly when some major world languages were cut along with other important electives/specials. It is true that you can run a more efficient schedule by only offering Spanish at some buildings...but that undermines the depth and integrity in curriculum. I am giving him a chance and hoping for the best.

The former supt got fed up being the puppet to the board. As someone who has experience with Dr Shaner they got their "yes man". RCS, the....RCS chose someone with no experience as the superintendent. This district with its reputation chose a rookie. This is just crazy on so many levels. Did anyone ever stop and think they gift wrapped him? If he truly is "willing to lead" he needs to start by cleaning up the debacle at Rochester High with Rowland. If he takes that on it will mean a head on fight with the asst supt of HR who slid him into that role when other better candidates were available. We pulled one child out of RCS and it looks like its time for #2. Its going to go from bad to worse with this board and their obedient "yes" man they just bought.