The salaries are even more disturbing in the context of recent comments made by IPS Superintendent Eugene White, who estimated that 60 percent of the teachers at those five high schools are ineffective, and blamed administrators for their failure.
“The teachers’ unions do get blamed for bad teachers,” White told the Inidanapolis Business Journal in a story published last week. “But the real, real, real fact of the matter is that bad teachers exist because administrators fail to properly supervise them.”
Yet for some reason, IPS rewards that type of administrative incompetence.
Principals at IPS’s five struggling high schools all received salaries of at least $100,000 in 2009-10. They are Richard Grismore, Emmerich Manual High School, $108,000; Jethroe Knazzle, Arlington Community High School, $107,000; Lawrence Yarrell, Northwest High School, $105,000; Stephanie Nixon, Thomas Carr Howe High School, $102,000; and Deborah Leser, George Washington Community High School, $101,000.
Each principal received pay increases in 2009-10, ranging from 3 to 14 percent. All of them, as well as 43 other IPS administrators, rake in more than Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who earns $95,000 per year.
Where's your raise?
From Channel 6 News website ----
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theindychannel.com/news/25776489/detail.html
Four pages showing the proposed school boundary changes for next school year:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.boarddocs.com/in/indps/Board.nsf/files/8AUL5B54DACD/$file/Proposed+2011+Boundaries.pdf
I personally know that at least two of those principals cannot teach. How could they effectively evaluate teachers. One has the personality of a witch and has ruined the community school that she was assigned.
ReplyDeleteMy raise? Sure. I just opened my TRF quarterly report. After 31 years of teaching, I have nearly $83,000 to support me after I retire in 2017. While I realize IPS contributes 3% for my benefit, it's outrageous that my three decades of service are "rewarded" with less than these administrators receive (I can't bring myself to type "earn") in one year.
ReplyDeleteRemember that when an administrator is placed in a teaching position, he/she has been "demoted".
Don't forget you get a defined pension check from TRF, each and every month. Your Aunnity Savings is just another perk, you will do fine with retirement. I am lucky and have five other pensions, two annuities accounts, and then my teachers pay. Then I have a small trust account, this was from my own money and sweat.
ReplyDeleteThe only raise most teachers get is the number of kids in their classroom. Oh, and the number of duties and more accountability in order to sustain the high and mighty administrative "support."
ReplyDeleteWhy do administrators make more than teachers at all? How about paying them the same amount as a teacher plus their hourly rate for the time they spend during the summer. TEACHING should be the highest value job in a school system, not administration. I've had exactly one principal who ever provided any educational leadership, out of at least 15 different principals. Good teachers should not have to leave the class room to make more money, and bad administrators need to go and find other jobs not be "demoted" to the most important job in the system, teaching.
ReplyDeleteSo White said those administrators have to work harder so the are entitled to a pay raise.
ReplyDeleteDoes that make it so?
One hundred and seventy seven administrators over $100,000. That means some of the ninety something thousand moved into $100,000 bracket.
Most of these people delegate to lesser paid employees and it's those people who are working harder, believe me.
I hope those who can, stay with this inquiry.
The harder the administrators "work", the more
stuff is dumped on the teachers.
I read the Channel 6 story and then watched their video of the interview with Dr. White.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theindychannel.com/news/25776489/detail.html
I found White to use a thought process that is not logical. It was brought out that high school principals who earn more than $100,000 per year in failing schools with only 800 or so students and less than 100 faculty members to supervise actually earn higher salaries than the Governor, who earns $95K per year, and who is responsible for supervising/operating an entire state. Quite a difference. White responded to this by saying flippantly, "The Governor is a millionaire."
Maybe the present Governor is a millionaire, but that's not the point. The next Governor may not be a millionaire, and the Governor's salary will stay basically the same. A person's salary is not based upon his accrued money from other sources or upon his lack of money from other sources. State salaries and Public School salaries are based on positions on a Pay Scale.
Some teachers may have trust funds from old family money; however, we don't say their salaries need to be lower, nor do we say that teachers who have no money other than their salaries should be paid more.
White showed a lack of logic and showed some measure of thinly veiled envy.
I don't think it's envy, but I do think what the governor makes is illogical and irrelevant. But I think your logic is off too. Salaries aren't based on the amount of work or responsibility one has. Otherwise fast food workers would make more than engineers. It's market based. Salaries are based on what it takes to get a qualified person to do the job. If we pay too little, then we can only administrators who can't get a job anywhere else. But throwing money at a position doesn't automatically create talent (in teaching or in administration). And if White is hiring people based on nepotism and favor-granting, then those salaries are not necessarily based on skill or their market value.
ReplyDeleteRE: Four pages showing the proposed school boundary changes for next school year. So, uh...where the heck did Harshmann Middle School disappear to then?
ReplyDeleteHarshmann is the new STEM magnet.
ReplyDeleteWays to improve test scores.
ReplyDelete#1 limit enrollment to 22 per classroom
#2 Put 2 adults in each room, 1 teacher 1 assistant.
#3 Hire principals who actually support their teachers, and don't let the kids run the school. Disipline and mean what you say
The salary of the H.S. principals does not upset me nearly as much as the NUMBER of administrators who make over $100,000. This doesn't even take into account all of the $75,000 to $99,900 salaries that are paid to coaches, secretaries, consultants and experts-ALL higher than the highest paid teacher can make. I agree that teaching should be the highest valued position in a school and the very last positions to be cut in a budget crunch.
ReplyDeleteIt has been said you can't manage people into battle, you have to lead. Unfortunately these highly paid administrators are neither good managers or good leaders.
ReplyDeleteFirst, Eugene White is a millionaire also. Secondly, I find it offensive that there a poor admnistrator is demoted that his/her punishment is to become a "only a teacher". What kind of message does that send us when our jobs are deemed punishment by Eugene White and his friends.
ReplyDelete"The salary of the H.S. principals does not upset me nearly as much as the NUMBER of administrators who make over $100,000. This doesn't even take into account all of the $75,000 to $99,900 salaries that are paid to coaches, secretaries, consultants and experts...
ReplyDeleteThis is the truest thing said on this blog. I really don't mind the salaries of the principals. Lord knows they are at school forever! It is insulting the amount of money the so-called experts make. You can't tell me what all these coaches, consultants, directors,complianace monitors do that JUSTIFY these salaries! This has been a miserable school year for every teacher in the classroom because these people are running all over themselves ( and the teachers) trying to justify their jobs. They are confusing and annoying the hell out of everyone. I went to school in IPS and we did not have all these layers of administrators. The majority of these people need to be fired or put back in the classroom.
Oh, please, DO NOT put them back in the classroom. The "Dance of the Lemons" reminds me of when we coached Little League. We put the weakest player in left field, the one position with the least chance of actually fielding a batted ball.
ReplyDeleteDon't blame Big Daddy Gene for "demoting" administrators. We fossils still remember when Eula Warfield was stuck with 45 first-graders after her tenure at an eastside elementary. IPS quietly paid a lawsuit that resulted from Eula's leather belt-swinging escapade on a school bus. She was also found responsible when a kindergartener's life ended under the wheels of a bus.
That was 1982. Principals were "demoted" long before that year, and will be forever branded.
(Of course, not if they get out voluntarily. Good move, Newman!)
Perhaps they should be fired and demoted to the lowly, worthless, degrading position that we teachers hold. I still don't understand how we got to the point where teaching became a punishment for poor administrators.
ReplyDeleteIt's circular logic: If an educator becomes an administrator, it's perceived as an increase in status. So, when an administrator is moved back into the classroom, it carries an inferred negative connotation.
ReplyDeleteI'm a union man, but not an IPS employee or teacher.
ReplyDeleteIf I was in the Indianapolis teachers' union I would be asking the teachers union leaders what Abraham Lincoln asked Yankee General McClellan during the Civil War when McClellan refused to engage the Confederate enemy:
Said Lincoln - "General, if you're not going to USE my army, can I have it back?"
Where IS the Indianapolis teachers' union when all of this blitzkrieg against their teachers is going on at present? On TV? No. On the radio? No. Writing guest columns in the newspaper? No.
Fighting like warriors for the futures of their teachers and for the future of collecting bargaining? No.
Indianapolis teachers union president and leaders - "If you're not going to USE the union.......
IPS is too heavy with administrators and needs the State of Indiana to cut back on the labor costs and place more teachers backs into the classroom. I am amazed to hear about horrible administrators, and with my ten years with IPS, I only had one, my first assignment. One that I had who I truly liked was Amy Cox, she taught me more about classroom management that any professor. I am glad that I have only one more year to teach and then take a position with a private or charter school. I have the degrees and endorsements that make me valuable to a school system.
ReplyDeleteThe IEA president is wholly owned and controlled by Eugene White. She will never win reelection but will still be awarded with a do nothing Ed. Center job when she is rejected by the union members for selling out.
ReplyDeleteTo "I really don't mind the salaries of the principals. Lord knows they are at school forever!"
ReplyDeleteThat may very well be true at your school or even at most schools, but at my school (one of the magnets), the principal routinely "works from home" instead of showing up at the building. The staff finds it ridiculous (in part because we all know the real reason why she can't make it in many mornings), but even the students have noticed and commented. How can you run a school from home? How do you think she would react if her teachers left their lesson plans on their desks, called in for subs, and "worked from home" one day?
Not to worry as we're more professional and dedicated than that.
Congratulations though to the poster who actually has a principal who is visible and working. When she IS there, our principal is only visible standing outside of the main office before the students are let into the building. Once they are allowed in, she disappears into her office for the rest of the day.
Maybe disappearing is a good thing. Let's not forget her visibility at the Homecoming football game where she was so completely drunk that she was physically incapable of standing up to crown the Homecoming Queen and King.
World Class, my ass.
The principal at one large high school strolls in at around 9am with her extra large cup of coffee and then slowly begins her day. Everyone else on campus has to be there by 7:15a.m Why does the school board allow this? it takes a long time to get downtwon from Johnson County but not that long.
ReplyDeletePerhaps there's a long line at Starbucks.
ReplyDeleteI think she stops at the Speedway gas station near the school.
ReplyDeleteJust a minute. WE got a 2% raise for one year and 0% for another, but the principals got up to 13% from the district who told us over and over again there's just no money, budget cuts. Damn.
ReplyDeleteStill, I wouldn't want to be an IPS principal.
Me either!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't want to be included in the company of most of those who are currently IPS principals. What a bunch of losers.
ReplyDeleteThe principal at 74 watched used a laptop and watched the College basketball tourney during professional development meetings and then complained when the guest lecturer asked him to put it away. At my company, I would have terminated him on the spot.
ReplyDeleteLets get back to the topic at hand. The reality is that administrators have not had a raise in a few years. The people mentioned only had their salary increased because they moved into a higher level position, so the district had to pay them the salary that went with the position they were hired into.
ReplyDeleteThat is such bullshit. They were given elevated titles to justify giving them that much money. They certainly don't do anymore work.
ReplyDeleteEverytime there are budget cuts the budget is balanced on the backs of the teachers. Have you ever seen an Ed Center job cut? Didn't think so.
@Let's get back to the topic at hand. You are so full of shit. You must be an ed. center administrator.
ReplyDeleteWhile you're talking about IPS High School Principals...I know for a fact that North Central High, LN, LC, Pike High, Warren Central, etc. make over $116,000.00 for their jobs as High School Principals.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone taken a look at the pay scale for High School Principals of Warren, Wayne, Franklin, Decatur, Perry, Pike, and Washington Township High Schools.
Many of us know for a fact (look it up yourself on the DOE website)that IPS High School Administrators are NOT making what their peers are in other Marion County Schools.
I don't even like upper administrators, but Dr. White makes less than his peers also in other Marion County Districts. Many people who review this post simply laugh at how ignorant people really can be about the facts.
Don't go for what others write, do your very own research and be one of the few truly knowledgeable contributors.
If we look at other systems and compare. Lets look at the number of administrators per students. IPS has more administrators per student than any other Marion County system. We also have more personnel working in the ed center per student than other districts.
ReplyDeleteMaybe cut down on administrators and we can reduce classroom sizes.
Why do we need subject area administrators. What happened to the days of a teacher being department head for a stipend and teaching one period less at the HS level? Instead we have an administrator and he has to have a staff driving around (probably IPS paying gas money).
Why does a school of 800 students need a principal and three or four asst. principals? Check out any parochial school or other districts these numbers are needed for schools of this size.
Why is IPS paying some basketball coaches so much (Broad Ripple)? What is there really a need for such a position at Broad Ripple. In a time of cutting teachers and other expenses that pay could be used for two first year teachers (that Dr. White loves). If the position is so important why does the other HS's schools not have such a position?
Money in IPS is not spent wisely and yet when time for cuts happen we always retitle administrators for higher pay and cut teachers.
When will the school board wake up and smell what they are dishing out on the tax payers expenses.
But hey, I am only a parent and a tax payer. My opinion does not count.
Up until Basil Mawby the basketball coach at most schools was a teachers at the school and basketball coaching was a seasonal extra activity.
ReplyDeleteSuddenly basketball coach has become a full time job that merits more pay than a teacher...what gives with this?
Research tells us that participating in sports or any other extra-curricular activity inoculates kids against dropping out, but this emphasis on basketball just reinforces the idea that kids have that they are all going to play professional basketball.
As far as I know the only current NBA player from IPS is George Hill, who was also a good student. When he signed his first pro contract he said something to the effect of I know other kids who played better than me, but I listened to my parents, teachers and coaches, and that is why I am here.
CLOSE ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS!!
ReplyDeleteAll this drama, mediocrity and idiocy is very easily solved. Take all the funding that normally goes to public schools and give a voucher for each child to the parents to use for education. Even most expensive private schools costs less than what IPS spends per student. The vouchers could be as low as $8000 per student which is only a little over half of what IPS spends. The tax burden would nearly be cut in half. Parents would be able to make their own educational choices. The ridiculous teachers union would become useless and fade away along with the giant ineffective bureaucracy that is public education.
My children have been in private schools their whole lives. They both always place in the top five percent on any standardized testing they've ever had. I have never even come close to spending $8000 per year.
All the whining, bitching, insults and games going on in IPS as well as this board have become nothing more than a tiresome drain on society with no measurable benefit.
LOL! I take it you have an outside job and today's a slow day for you? :)
ReplyDeleteI would rather hear whining and bitching than your nonsensical bloviating about your child's preceived genius. If every parent who claimed to have a child in the top 5% actually had one in the top 5%, 50% of our children would be in the top 5%,
ReplyDeleteIf we gave the parents the money for school they would spend it on something else.
ReplyDeleteRight! But I pay 14,000 for my child's private education.
ReplyDeleteWell that's your problem. If you like throwing money away go right ahead. I'll support public education, thanks.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with that theory is that IPS has kids who cost over $50,000. per year to educate...and this education is mandated by law, what school will take the $8000.00 voucher for the $50,000+ a year kid?
ReplyDeleteSo let me get this straight. They are not closing 107 and 109, but they are still sending Gambold to Northwest. So the newly remodeled Gambold building will sit empty?
ReplyDeletewho, exactly is Jethroe Knazzle? Did you mean Jethroe Knazze?
ReplyDeleteI think they should fire all of the Regional Directors for doing such a piss poor job of supervising the "BAD" Principals at some out of control elementary school buildings. Joan Harrell needs to go back and make like a statue at the wax museum. She isn't even visible at the schools where she is "supposedly" the Regional Director. More money could be utilized if these "useless" positions were cut from the budget! Get Rid of Regional Directors, they do nothing but keep poor Principals on the job.
ReplyDeleteCorrection-Gambold is going to become a high school. They did not say that on the broadcast of the board meeting last night.
ReplyDeleteI'm a union man, but not an IPS employee or teacher.
ReplyDeleteIf I was in the Indianapolis teachers' union I would be asking the teachers union leaders what Abraham Lincoln asked Yankee General McClellan during the Civil War when McClellan refused to engage the Confederate enemy:
Said Lincoln - "General, if you're not going to USE my army, can I have it back?"
Where IS the Indianapolis teachers' union when all of this blitzkrieg against their teachers is going on at present? On TV? No. On the radio? No. Writing guest columns in the newspaper? No.
Fighting like warriors for the futures of their teachers and for the future of collecting bargaining? No.
Indianapolis teachers union president and leaders - "If you're not going to USE the union.......
You really sound like an AP Social Studies teacher in Room 320 something.
Adding to the 1st post. You forgot the fake ass Judge she is well over them or right with them. Wonder who she slept with when the court she was in was ready to fire her now look at her pay. Also wonder what IPS could have kept just getting rid of that program. Am I wrong or did we get along just fine placing the kids before her? IPS has budget cuts but she remains untouched, guess its not who you know but, who you blow
ReplyDelete