I attended the Rich County School Board meeting last week Wednesday
(1/21/2015). I learned a lot. Although this was a good experience for me
and I wish I was more involved in the school board prior to this point in time,
I am not happy to say it was a good experience.
One of the first things to happen at the meeting was the newly elected
school board member were sworn into their positions by the secretary. The new members were Mr. Bryce Huefner, Mr. Monte
Weston and Mr. Eric Wamsley. Three out
of the five board members are new, which indicates to me that the Rich County electorate
wanted some new ideas and new representation on this board.
One topic of discussion at this school board meeting was the
compensation received by the board members.
I asked openly was exactly that compensation was. This question was answered by the secretary,
and now I want to share this with the public.
Although this compensation may have been public knowledge before, I
highly doubt the vast majority of Rich County residents (including myself) had
any idea of what that is.
Rich County school board members each make:
$250 per month +
$60 per board meeting +
$0.45 per mile (for travel reimbursement) +
$12,000 - $18,000 per year for health insurance benefits
This comes out to $3,000 + $720 cash + health insurance. To make it simple that roughly comes out to
$20,000+ per year per board member! I
served on several board appointments in my life and I would estimate I spent an
honest 8-10 hours per month working on board-related work outside of regularly
scheduled meetings. With that level of
involvement our school board members are making in between $167-$208 per hour!
That amount of compensation is
simply not acceptable to me. That is comparable
to what lawyers and doctors are making!
Is this what we want in Rich County?
While I thought the monthly fee, meeting attendance fee, and travel
reimbursement were acceptable, I was absolutely shocked to learn that school
board members received any type health insurance. I asked the question of WHY and HOW school
board members received health insurance benefits. This is where the meeting
really became interesting. Instead of a
board member answering the question, Dale Lamborn (school superintendent)
immediately spoke up and indicated that State Statute says they can have
compensation.
John Spulher, mayor of Garden
City, who was in attendance at the meeting, asked if the health benefits were
mandated by State Statute, or simply allowed for the board members. Again, I found it rather odd that the
superintendent answered that question and indicated it was only “provided by
Statute and not required”. I then asked
the board WHO decided that Rich County School Board members should receive
Health Insurance benefits? After some
discussion and no clear answers, as far as I could decipher, it was indeed the
school board themselves! Granted this
health insurance was not granted by the currently standing school board to
themselves, but the tone of the meeting turned very defensive even at the
asking of these questions.
Two of the most shocking (and disappointing) things were then
said. President of the board, Pete
Cornia, indicated that in the last 32 years that only 3 people have run for
school board in his district and without offering monetary compensation and
health insurance benefits no one would even be interested in running for the
position. I indicated that his statement
was his opinion. Does that sound like a
statement a school board president should ever make? Should not wanting to serve the students of
Rich County be a priority? I sure as
heck think it should! If no one in Mr. Cornia’s district wants to run
for school board unless there is pay and health insurance benefits offered, I’m
sure we could find someone in other parts of the county to represent Mr.
Cornia’s district for a lot less!
Secondly, Eric Wamsley, newly elected board member from Laketown
indicated that “I’m a small business owner”.
Mayor Spulher asked out-loud what that had to do with anything pertinent
to the current discussion? Mr. Wamsley
then answered saying as a small business owner he pays thousands of dollars in
taxes and does not feel guilty of taking the compensation or health insurance
either. Again, I ask you…..does that
sound like a statement a NEWLY-ELECTED school board should make? Should not wanting to serve the students of
Rich County be a priority? I sure as
heck think it should!
Finally, Rich Larsen, Principal of Rich High School, said he thinks the
compensation for the board was fine since he equated the members of the board to
Chief Executive Officers (CEO’s) of a multi, multi, million-dollar
enterprise. This is a person in a position who directly
benefits from decisions made by the school board and was openly campaigning for
them at a public meeting. Maybe I was
reading too much into his statement, but it sure appeared to me of a: “you
scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”-type of opinion, and not appropriate
for school official to comment on, especially when they board sets the
principal’s salary.
Immediately after the discussion ended, Mr. Huefner made a motion to
eliminate all compensation to school board members. Not one person on the board
seconded the motion and therefore no one on the board had to “vote” to show
whether they wanted to keep or eliminate benefits for board members. I do have to give kudos to Mr. Huefner for
making the motion and brining up this topic on the agenda.
What was interesting was that the 4 other board members (other than Mr.
Huefner) pointed out no one on the board is forced to take their compensation
and benefits and could turn them back to the school. That is a most honorable point, but none of
these members (with the possible exception of Mr. Weston who said he hasn’t yet
decided if he will take the benefits) were willing to give up their benefits in
lieu of saving the Rich School District over $100,000 per year!
In summary and in my opinion, paying our Rich County School board
members close to $200 per hour in compensation is ridiculous. Perhaps years ago when health insurance was
not astronomically costly, and the School Board voted to give themselves a
fully-funded health care plan, it may have not been a big deal. However, the fact is health insurance is
something the School District should not be paying to school board members that only meet once per
month and are already compensated by a salary/stipend. As far as I can see, the only way this
situation will ever change is to elect people to the school board who will
actually vote to eliminate their health insurance benefits and use the money
saved by hiring additional teachers or provide better materials for the
children of our county.
Fortunately, we do have a bunch of great teachers in our Rich County
school system and I am happy that both of my daughters had the opportunity to
attend and graduate from school in Rich County. With that said, I am in a position now where
I can speak out freely about what some perceive as inadequacies and
questionable practices in the school system.
Unfortunately, I feel I could not speak out about these sooner, while my
children were attending the school for fear of reprisals against them. The sad part is that many other parents who
still have kids in our school system feel the same way.
Finally, for comparison the Mayor of Garden City makes:
$520 per month + mileage
NO HEALTH BENEFITS
A total compensation of $6,240 per year
Rest assured the Garden City mayor puts in significantly more hours each
month and attends more meetings (uncompensated for meetings) than any board member (planning & zoning
board, variance board, or school board) does.
Scott Tolentino,
Garden City, UT
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