Arizona school districts are moving into employment contract season, which is also the time when high-level administrative employees and coaches announce they are leaving, generally for greener pastures. For employees in Gilbert Public Schools, just about any pasture is greener these days. BTW, teachers don’t have to declare whether they are returning to GPS (that will be in May), but their resumes are brightly burnished and they are ready for interviews!
First up, let’s look at Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s three year contract. It’s a doozy, full of everything Good Old Dave Allison had, plus a whole lot more. We hear that Good Old 7-0 Kishimoto is teaching her Arizona superintendent *peers* how to get the same gold-plated deal for themselves. We can’t wait to hear from all those educrats that it’s all for the kids. [sarcasm and ridicule]
Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s Compensation Package:
~ Base Pay: $200,000.00 each year.
~ Automatic raise each year: 2% (that’s $4,000.00 each year)
~ Expense Allowance: $5,000.00 per year.
~ Automobile Entitlement: $6,600.00, to be paid at $550.00 per month.
~ Professional Growth: Capped at $3,000.00 per year.
~ Civic Responsibility Expense: $3,000.00 per year.
~ Tax Sheltered Annuity: $10,000.00 on July 1st and on January 1st of each year.
~ $500,000.00 Basic term life insurance policy.
~ Disability insurance: within 30 days of disability, covering 75% of salary.
~ Moving Expense: $15,000.00 to be paid no later than August 1, 2014.
~ Administrative Benefits (which she can cash in for full value, unlike low-level GPS employees):
~ No less than 24 vacation days, exclusive of legal holidays.
~ 16 days for illness benefits and leaves.
~ 10 days of personal leave.
~ Healthcare for herself and her family.
~ All other benefits provided to twelve month administrative employees.
Evaluations: Having been humiliated by the Hartford Board of Education’s one and only evaluation of her performance as superintendent, it’s no wonder that 7-0 Kishimoto put it into her contract that her evaluations and assessments shall be done in executive session.
Performance Pay: Criteria to be determined by October 1, 2014. We all know that the superintendent and the board waited until January 2015 to even discuss the goals and criteria for 7-0 Kishimoto’s $10,000.00 performance-based compensation. It looks like she waited ’til the board was stacked with *friendlies,* including her pet bought-and-paid-for members. The performance pay payout is August 1st of each year.
Getting fired: Having been humiliated in Hartford, once again it’s no surprise that 7-0 Kishimoto made sure her contract spells out the convoluted path a board must take to fire her discharge her for cause.
Our gal Christina gets the same magnificent indemnification clause that GOB Dave Allison had. There must be some reason that school district superintendents want to have district-paid lawyers representing them for fleecing the public getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar or other such shenanigans.
There’s no way Christina Kishimoto will ever measure up to Camille Casteel, Superintendent of Chandler Unified School District. Dr. Casteel is getting a high school named for her while she’s still superintendent – that says it all about the level of respect she has earned. Here’s the Chandler board’s proclamation. It’s powerful and inspiring, if you are an educator. Notice that Dr. Casteel began as a first grade teacher, and she’s really proud of it. Another stellar superintendent in Florida is an old classmate of DWestie. See, a community doesn’t have to settle for substandard.
There’s a reason GPS teachers have fled to Chandler USD in droves. Even the students noticed last year; nothing has changed for the better this year:
Teachers are finding more and more reasons to leave their schools, specifically Gilbert Public Schools (GPS), to find a more comfortable place here in the Chandler Unified School District (CUSD). Due to problems such as finances, workload, and safety in their school system, educators are willing to pack up their belongings and land a job at Perry in order to continue a secure and more professional career in their desired line of work.
With little communication and uncertainty all-around, teachers and higher-ups might continue to clash and there will undoubtedly be more resignations and retirements (more than average) throughout all of Gilbert Public Schools for the upcoming months to come.
We made a public records request for the contracts of the other top dogs in GPS, way back on December 9, 2014: Alexander Nardone, Jeffrey Gadd, Suzanne Zentner, Linda McKeever* and Brian Jaeger. Yeah, we still don’t have them two months later. It’s not like it’s hard for GPS to find five contracts; it’s probably that GPS doesn’t want anyone to know how generous the top dog paychecks are. Since it’s almost time to renegotiate the contracts for the top dogs, the most recent pots of gold are of great interest to the loyal GPS employees who are waiting for the largess they thought had been promised by the new bought-and-paid-for board members and the GEA president who rallied state-wide troops to elect them. We wonder if the screaming meemies will get all worked up over a *mass exodus* this year.
Oh, you didn’t know that most assistant superintendent level contracts are negotiated annually? All over Arizona, they come up with all kinds of goodies, from free health insurance to car allowances to *Pay for Additional Work* to goodness knows what else. That’s while the board *considers* a salary increase for loyal employees in the range of 1% to 2%, usually. Then there’s the Higley board that gives Superintendent Denise Birdwell big old pension spiking humongous raises every year for being … famously mean. At least, that’s what we hear from our birdies.
[Keyboard: Hang in there, Higley employees, Birdwell is almost gone.]
There’s some news for all you loyal employees are waiting to hear how you will fare on the new Stepless Salary Schedule. We know you’re all crossing your fingers that there will be money in the actual budget for those increases this time. Her Wellness, Suzanne Zentner, will be making presentations about the Stepless Salary Schedule along with Moneybags Jeff Gadd. What a lot of chutzpah to “share the details” BEFORE the board approves a new salary schedule! Yeah, if GEA has blessed this, it shall be done…
RE: Stepless Salary Schedule Presentations and Question/Answer Forums
In an ongoing effort to share the details of the proposed stepless salary schedule transition, you are invited to attend any of the meetings noted below.
Certified Staff: Thursday, 2/19 from 4-5pm @ Mesquite High School Lecture Hall
Thursday, 3/5 from 4:30-5:30pm @ Highland High School Lecture Hall
Support Staff: Tuesday, 3/3 from 4-5pm @ Greenfield Jr High School Library
Wednesday, 3/18 from 4-5pm @ Mesquite Jr High School Auditorium
Notice you have to attend these meetings on your own time if you want to know what’s going on about your pay. That’s on top of all the endless meetings you have to attend as part of your job. In other industries, employers have figured out how to communicate over webinars so that any and all employees can get the same message at a time convenient to their unique work schedule. What a concept!
More of the same old stuff: our buddies in Hartford say that 7-0 Kishimoto’s strong point has never been communication, and it’s becoming more evident every day that communication is not 7-0 Kishimoto’s strong point in Gilbert, either. Birdies are chirping that these presentations about the new GPS Strategic Operating Plan have been *tailored* for various audiences to try to get more buy-in. Heck, 7-0 Kishimoto makes sure there are raffles and giveaways to pump up audience numbers when she graces the community with her presence. Sheeeesh. SOS:
There is no question that Kishimoto’s skill set is missing strong communication ability. She definitely needs work on informing the board and answering members’ questions.
Maybe it’s like doing the limbo: how low can she go?
*******************
* Big Fat Asterisk: Did Linda McKeever get a big fat raise when she got promoted to Curriculum Commissar at the last board meeting?
[Keyboard: Duh…why bother asking?]