At their regular meeting tonight, the Onteora Board of Education is scheduled to vote on a new contract for superintendent Phyllis McGill.
The new contract would cut her salary from $160,000 a year to $150,000 a year, and extend the end date on her contract another two years, from June 30, 2014 to June 30, 2016.
The move to change McGill's contract with the school comes just two weeks before a heated May 15 school board election. Emotions in the Onteora community have been running high, in the wake of a controversial decision by the board to reconfigure the district's three elementary schools, starting this fall.
Some parents have questioned the timing of the vote. On the school board's Facebook page, Becky Kelzenberg Konjas asked why the board was voting to extend McGill's contract before the reconfiguration is put into place:
We have yet to see how well this reconfiguration is handled. Wouldn't a 1- or 2-year contract be more appropriate in order to truly assess where we are and how our leadership has handled such a huge change?
Sierra Cady Smith comments:
It just appears awfully convenient that [McGill] goes along with the board's agenda & the board now scrambles to secure her position 2 months prior to the "on or about" date of June 30th...conveniently at the last BOE meeting before the election.
Board president Ann McGillicuddy told the Watershed Post that the extension of the contract until 2016 is an indirect result of McGill's offer to take a pay cut. Offering a new contract that expires in just two years would send a message to McGill that she should pack her bags, McGillicuddy said:
"In the public school world, if a superintendent has less than a three-year contract, it's a sign to look for another job," she said. "So it is common for boards to extend the contract by one or two or three years."
McGillicuddy said that the pay cut McGill has offered to take will save the cash-strapped district money, not just in salary, but in the costs of other benefits.
"We will be saving pension and healthcare costs on that $10,000 cut," she said. "It also shows a commitment on her part and the board's part to work together and follow through on the reconfiguration, for the future of the district."
School board candidate Rebecca Balzac told the Watershed Post that the board should have waited until later in the year to vote on the new contract.
"It would be more appropriate to wait until after the reconfiguration has been put into effect. The board shouldn’t make any decisions until we see how she handles the problems and glitches that are bound to arise," she wrote in an email.
Balzac also said that the board should have made more of an effort to publicize the vote.
"The Board has done what they are legally required to do, but haven’t made any effort to get the word out so that voters can say what they think," she wrote.
The full text of McGill's current contract and the proposed contract can be viewed by clicking the links below.
Current contract for Onteora superintendent Phyllis McGill
Proposed superintendent contract to be voted on by the Onteora Board of Education on May 1, 2011
