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| Schools Starting to Post Salary Details; Michigan Confidential- August 10, 2010 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 16 2010, 11:15 PM (1,009 Views) | |
| Administrator | Aug 16 2010, 11:15 PM Post #1 |
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Schools Starting to Post Salary Details By Tom Gantert | Aug. 10, 2010 In the Bloomfield Hills School District, three of the top paid employees are music teachers, earning salaries of $108,972, $98,847 and $97,054. Troy Public Schools listed the salaries and cost of benefits for all of its employees. There are 89 employees whose salaries exceeded $100,000. Benton Harbor Area Schools doesn't have anyone making six figures since the superintendent left, according to Greg McIntyre, an accountant in the school district. All that information was public record that the general public wouldn't have known until recently. That's because the State School Aid Act was amended requiring each school district to post financial and salary and benefit information on its website. Schools had until July 30 to post the information, according to Michael Van Beek, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's director of education policy. "I think it is great. This is something we've been pushing for years now," Van Beek said. "It will give citizens the ability to go in and hold their school districts accountable." It's the type of information that usually required a Freedom of Information Act request, and usually the person requesting was charged for reasonable costs. Jackson Public Schools doesn't appear to have any information provided on its website. A'Lynne Robinson, a district spokeswoman, said she was looking into it. Annarbor.com did an analysis of the information and did a story reporting that the Ann Arbor school district had 88 employees with salaries of $100,000 or more in 2009. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy has urged school districts to post their expenditures online. (See: http://www.mackinac.org/9329) More than 80 districts are known to have agreed to do that. ~~~~~ See also: Oxford Schools:Saving Money and Improving Service Onsted Community Schools Shows Taxpayers the Money Find Out Who Works for YOU in the Michigan Legislature http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/13204 Cronyism easier to conceal in state capital than in Washington or Detroit http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/10863 Sun May Finally Shine on State Pols' Staff Salary Secrets http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/13174 Rookie politicians reveal names, salaries of staff http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/10258 K-12 Tumbles Down Voters' List of Priorities http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/13129 School Funding Goes Up ... MEA Wants More http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/13056 Warren Schools: Plenty of Desks, But Not Enough Cost-Cutting? http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/12854 Sunshine Week 2010: Several Kent County Schools Now Posting Checkbooks Online http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/12348 http://www.showmichiganthemoney.org/article.aspx?ID=13345 |
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| n73pm | Aug 16 2010, 11:42 PM Post #2 |
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And we are paying most of medical insurance when we can't afford to pay for our own ..well, some of us! This makes me very mad but then I knew that the UNION lead MEA and the rest of the country's teacher's UNIONS were paid so well with so much bennies! But of course, it's the children, and that excuse has been used for decades with little or no improvement in the students' scores, in fact a slippage. I have not defended or supported the public schools for many years since knowing some of this already. The teacher's union, et al. needs to be abolished and education should be given to private sector. At least try it. It cannot get any worse and maybe it might just help. The school system has become nothing but a money pit with no returns on your money. The devil's workshop for SOCIALISM is the H.E.W. Dept. Health - that's covered by this new socialized medicine garbage passed by the SOCIALISTS! Education - That's the biggest cesspool of funding the UNION leaders and the teachers, pensions, medical bennies, etc. that suck up most of the money that goes to ''so-called-education''. The few pennies that are left over go to kid's education, but they still will have to bring their own toilet paper...lol! Welfare - That will be and has been the stone around our neck for decades! With the lack of education the kids will be the future recipients of welfare ...if we still have a viable country to speak of. I'm not very optimistic as I've seen this same drain in other countries that are nowt defunct and broke! |
| I support Global Warming cuz nothing grows in ice! | |
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| Administrator | Aug 17 2010, 12:07 PM Post #3 |
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As part of state aid, school districts now required to post more financial info online Published: Sunday, August 08, 2010, 6:20 AM Lynn Moore | The Muskegon Chronicle WEST MICHIGAN -- Salaries of top-paid school administrators as well as bargaining agreements, audits and annual budgets now can be viewed on school districts' websites as the result of new state requirements. State lawmakers, when passing the state school aid bill last year, included a requirement that websites of public school districts and intermediate school districts begin including a wide range of budget information. The issue is referred to as "transparency reporting." School districts were to post the information within 30 days of passing their 2010-11 school budgets, which they were required to have in place by July 1. The legislation specifically requires salary and benefit costs for the superintendent and for any employee whose annual salary is more than $100,000. It also requires pie charts for total expenditures and personnel costs, lists of health benefit plans, audit reports, dues paid to associations and amounts paid to lobbyists. While all the information has been available to the public, it hasn't been in one easily accessible location. "Anybody could have had that information, but they would have had to ask for it, and generally people don't do that," said Susan Meston, superintendent of the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District. "We owe them the knowledge of how their money is being spent." Many school districts already posted much of the information on their websites, especially annual budgets and, to a lesser degree, bargaining agreements. Ravenna Public Schools for several years has even been posting its check register on the district website so all expenditures were out in the open. "We have nothing to hide," said Ravenna Superintendent John VanLoon. "I think it helps people understand right where we are financially." He and other superintendents, most of whom earn more than $100,000 per year, don't necessarily like the idea of posting their salaries, but not salaries of others, including teachers. "I've got a few teachers who make more per day than I do, and they work less days," VanLoon said. "I would just as soon people know what teachers make, what food service workers make, what the superintendent makes -- what everyone makes." Mona Shores also has already been posting lots of financial data on its website, and Superintendent Terry Babbitt said the trouble becomes not "cluttering" the website too much. "I believe in transparency -- we're a public institution," Babbitt said. "I don't have a problem putting anything out there." Intermediate school districts already were required to post similar information on their websites and now are required to post some additional data. A check of area schools' websites on Friday found most were complying with the law. Orchard View had most but not all required data posted with a message that it is "a work in progress." Muskegon Heights did not post information about the superintendent's salary or collective bargaining agreements. Area charter schools -- Three Oaks, Timberland and Waypoint -- generally only had budget information but no audits or information on association or lobbying expenses. Charters don't have superintendents, but rather principals, and no local charter schools posted principals' salaries. The MAISD helped local districts comply with the new law. The intermediate school district met with local districts' business managers and provided a template to use on their websites along with tips, Meston said. That template -- which features a "transparency reporting" icon with the map of Michigan -- was shared with the Michigan Association of School Administrators and picked up by many other school districts in the state. "The only thing I didn't like about (the transparency requirement) was the time it took to put together and there was no money to do it," Meston said. "It was another unfunded mandate." But she said now that the districts have done it once, updating information next year should be relatively easy. Senate Republicans inserted the requirement in the school aid bill late in contentious budget talks, and the Democratic caucus agreed to it to get a deal completed. E-mail Lynn Moore: lmoore@muskegonchronicle.com Related topics: education http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2010/08/as_part_of_state_aid_school_di.html |
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| Administrator | Aug 24 2010, 08:41 PM Post #4 |
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New state requirement makes schools post financial data online Published: Sunday, August 22, 2010, 3:00 PM Blake Thorne | Flint Journal GENESEE COUNTY, Michigan — Want to know how much your school district spent on lobbying last year? Or maybe how much the superintendent gets paid? The curious have a new wealth of information just a click away. A new state requirement is forcing all Michigan schools to put online detailed financial information — including six-figure salaries, union contracts and audit reports. The law had a July 31 deadline and Fenton Area Public Schools is the only district in the county that hasn’t posted the information as of Friday. “I think teachers are worth more money than they’re making right now, but I don’t know if administrators are worth that much,” said Steve O’neill, 56, who grew up in Burton and now lives in Roscommon County. He said he’s glad spending information will be more accessible. “That’s a good thing, to know where the money’s going,” O’neill said. For example, Google “Grand Blanc Schools” and in three clicks you can learn the director of business affairs and technology made $111,475 in 2009 plus $19,385 in retirement benefits. “I don’t have a problem with that being out there, because it’s public information,” said Dana Taylor, who holds that position. Grand Blanc has 24 six-figure salaries listed. While school’s struggle to balance budgets, big salaries have become a politically-charged topic statewide. Doug Busch, Fenton’s executive director of finance and personnel, said the requirements coincided with an overhaul of the district’s website and the data should be up by early this week. Busch also warns, though, that the data should not be viewed out of context. “That mouse click can really tell only part of the story on expenses,” Busch said. “People have to delve deeper and look at things like district programs and district demographics.” He pointed to transportation costs as an example — which could be far higher in a district with less enrollment because the square miles covered by the district are more. The Michigan Department of Education is monitoring compliance across the state, but there are not specific consequences set up for districts that don’t comply, said Glenda Rader, assistant director of the department’s state aid and school finance office. “As we discover a violation, we contact the districts,” she said. Flint Community Schools has the largest operating budget in the county. Flint schools spokesman Robert Campbell said there was “no reluctance” to comply with the new legislation. “I think that helps build public confidence and trust. ... I don’t want that to be interpreted that before the age of the Internet there was anything to hide,” Campbell said. Don Messier, 79, lives in Flint and said he thinks the district has been responsible with spending. The district lists 15 six-figure salaries. But big paychecks are necessary for big jobs, he said. “This is a big town, this is no slouch town,” he said. With about half the compliance monitoring done, 51 percent of districts are complying, 31 percent are not complying and 18 percent are partially complying, meaning the info isn’t posted completely or properly, Rader said. School districts are required to post current operating budgets, pie charts of total and personnel expenditures, lists of health benefit plans, budget audit reports, any money spent on lobbying, and salaries and benefits for superintendents, and all six-figure-earning employees. The information was public record already, this just makes it easier to access. The measure was tied to a school funding bill and requires districts to post the information through a link on their home pages. Districts were required to do this within 30 days of passing their 2010-11 budgets, which they had to do by July 1. “It absolutely is a step in the right direction because it makes this data easily accessible to the people who are funding our schools, which is taxpayers,” said Michael VanBeek, director of education policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which has advocated for posting financial data online. VanBeek said he hopes the legislation makes schools more responsible about spending and they should be able to “defend spending priorities.” “I think it creates new incentives for schools, knowing people can access their data with the click of a mouse,” he said. Several school officials said gathering and posting the data wasn’t too time consuming or difficult. Many school districts, including Fenton, already were posting at least some of the information. Taylor estimated the process took about eight hours between a few people. Some hope posting the information could even save schools time, and paper, by pointing people to their websites. Related topics: Fenton, Flint, Grand Blanc http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2010/08/new_state_requirement_makes_sc.html |
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