Wait, it gets better. Philly school superintendent gets almost $500,000 annually.

[madfloridian]

That is even more than DC's Michelle Rhee.

What's more, Arlene Ackerman just got a $65,000 bonus.

Ackerman gets $65,000 performance bonus

Philadelphia Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman has been awarded a $65,000 performance bonus, an official confirmed Monday night. The bonus, awarded by the School Reform Commission, is on top of Ackerman's $325,000 salary. She became the head of the nation's eighth-largest school district in June 2008.

Including perks such as the bonus, life insurance, and pension, Ackerman is paid almost $500,000 annually.

She gets the same health insurance as other district managers and gets raises equal to those given to district teachers. She gets 34 days of vacation and can trade up to four for cash annually. She will be paid for any unused vacation time when she leaves the district.

Ackerman also receives a BlackBerry and a cell phone, plus a laptop, printer, and fax machine to use at home. She also gets a district-paid car.

If Ackerman stays through next June, she will earn an extra $100,000. Her contract expires in 2013.

Dr. Ackerman is also a Broad Superintendent.

School District of Philadelphia

Dr. Ackerman also is Superintendent in Residence of Los Angeles-based Broad Center, where she facilitates and directs the Broad Superintendents Academy. The Academy is a ten-month executive management program designed to prepare CEOs and senior executives from business, government, and education backgrounds to lead urban public school systems.

Interestingly enough she last month created a new job position in her department.

Ackerman creates new 'chief' position at $180,000

Superintendent Arlene Ackerman has created a new high-level post in her administration and hired Leroy Nunery, a former executive at Edison Schools and a finalist for Ackerman's position when she was hired nearly two years ago.

Nunery will earn more than Mayor Nutter - a whopping $180,000 a year - as chief of institutional advancement and strategic partnerships. His catch-all job description involves fundraising, promoting outside partnerships, and revamping the Intermediate Unit (IU) to provide better and more organized technical assistance to both District-operated and charter schools.

As a consultant last year, Nunery helped Ackerman develop the Renaissance Schools plan, which is engaged in the "turnaround" of low-performing schools primarily through bringing in outside managers and converting them to charters

That last sentence reminded me that many Philly charters are under investigation by the city controller...and I hear the investigation is spreading to the national level now.

City Controller Alan Butkovitz's investigation of 13 Philadelphia charter schools found repeated examples of complex real estate arrangements in which charters leased or rented facilities from related non-profit organizations.

"The way the charter law is written and not enforced--there is a gigantic loophole through which people can profiteer," Butkovitz said. "This is not supposed to be a vehicle for maximizing profit for operators and related parties."

Butkovitz began his special fraud investigation of charters several months after The Inquirer reported allegations of financial mismanagement and conflicts of interest at Philadelphia Academy Charter School in April 2008.

His staff has been sharing information with the U.S. Attorney's Office, which is conducting a criminal investigation of at least nine area charter schools, according to sources with knowledge of the probe.

[callous taoboy]

1. Like I said in aother post- TRIM THE FAT!

[ixion]

6. Yep. And the FAT is the Adminstrators

Universities could benefit from a fat trimming as well.

[liberal_at_heart]

15. exactly

Administrators get paid way too much money. That money needs to go to highly qualified teachers and classrooms. I guess when they cut a school program like art, music, or PE we know where the money is going.

[ixion]

26. when I was in college in the 80's

The university admin cut the linguistics department, slashed the library budget to the bone -- then turned around and gave themselves a raise and built a new athletics center for the football team.

The level of loathing that provoked in me was off the chart. :argh:

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Angry Dragon]

2. These people make me sick

They complain about teachers and grades and all they care about is how much more money they can put in their pockets

[tonysam]

8. They're almost all that way once they become principals

There is a tremendous sense of entitlement these people have, and they will do anything short of murder to get what they want. It doesn't matter how many teachers' careers they ruin in order to keep their jobs.

[icee]

27. No offence, but until there is an actual revolt with shovels and

pitchforks, this kind of stuff will not stop. Who's to stop it: crooked politicians on both sides of the aisle doing approximately the same thing? More bbs's, more letters, faxes, whatever to more people? No, this actually facillitates the problem growing stronger.

[RockaFowler]

3. Isn't a Blackberry a Cell Phone??

Why do you need both??

And yet our kids get less and less each year for the money we pay in taxes.

And who gets paid for unused vacation time anymore?? Man, I want that job

[madfloridian]

4. I thought so.

Just quoting the article. I thought they were the same.

[superduperfarleft]

5. Well, it's a tough job covering up the racially-motivated beatings of Asian students

and overseeing some of the most consistently dangerous and violent schools in the state.

[tonysam]

7. Ackerman, like many superintendents, gets passed around from district

to district.

She's a lousy one.

[madfloridian]

9. They refuse to reveal the criteria for her bonus. Said it is not public info.

Benchmarks for Ackerman bonus withheld

Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman has received a $65,000 performance bonus, but the Philadelphia School District said the detailed criteria under which she earned the money were not public information.

In a statement, School Reform Commission Chair Robert L. Archie Jr. said Ackerman was evaluated on a series of performance goals and "exceeded all 21 benchmarks."

The Inquirer asked for the benchmarks on which Ackerman was evaluated and how she exceeded them, but the request was denied by Evelyn Sample-Oates, district spokeswoman. She said Ackerman's contract prohibited the release of the information.

The paper has filed a Right to Know request for the information under Pennsylvania's open records law.

Instead, the district Tuesday night released broad objectives as defined by the commission and a list of 26 accomplishments during Ackerman's nearly two-year tenure.

I have a question: Whose money is paying her bonus? Answer as far as I know: Taxpayers.

Of course it should be public knowledge.

[Jefferson23]

13. Wow, this is depressing as hell.

[Hannah Bell]

24. It may not be. The privatizers (Gates, broad et al) ponied up to give Rhee more $$.

And she's not the only one getting private money.

I don't understand why public officials being paid by individuals isn't called by its rightful name: bribery.

[bulloney]

32. There is such a disconnection with public officials on where their money originates, madfloridian.

I have a sister who worked her entire adult life as a public school teacher. Her husband was a municipal employee his entire career. Both are retired in their mid-50's, thanks to PERS and STERS. Both rail about Obama's "socialist" agenda 24/7. After one too many of these tirades, I had to cut in and remind them that they made their living off the taxpayer's dime and they are now enjoying retirement at a young age off the taxpayers. To which they replied that THEY paid the employee contribution to their retirement programs.

Where did this money originate? And what about the employer's contribution to their retirements?

In addition, the BIL is drawing his PERS while working his new job for the county engineer. So, he's drawing a salary and retirement off the taxpayers and building a second taxpayer-funded retirement with his county job.

And yet, they'll rant about Obama and his socialism all the time.

Regarding the Philadelphia school case you referred to, I agree that the public has every right to know the criteria for awarding the bonuses. It's paid by taxpayer dollars.

[pscot]

10. The pay is sick.

Even sicker is the fact that she fosters her own kind. The replicants are taking over our systems.

[madfloridian]

11. Power and money are taking over education.

The end result will be that they control the agenda of learning.

[Old Troop]

12. And that, my friend, is why Philly's schools are nearly perfect

[amborin]

14. administrators have always been grossly overpaid

this is true at the university level, too; in the UC system, for example, profs are on enforced furloughs, while campus- and system-wide admins get huge salaries and perks

[madfloridian]

16. But now that 275,000 teachers may lose their jobs next year...

it becomes more intolerable to hear of it.

Agreed they have been overpaid, but in our area it was never like this until the last few years.

[amborin]

17. is this getting wide publicity?

hopefully so;

[madfloridian]

19. No, the media does not cover it. Just a few bloggers.

That's it. Arne is adored by the main media, and not a single Democratic leader speaks up for teachers.

[Hannah Bell]

25. "always"? i don't think so.

[JDPriestly]

18. Cortines in L.A. tops all these stories not because of the amount he

is paid but because who was paying him at least until February 12, 2010.

Here goes:


L.A. Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines sits on the board of directors of the New York City-based Scholastic Corporation. The Los Angeles Times reports that federal filings disclosed Cortines earned $151,000 last year from the company, and roughly the same amount the previous two years.

A filing from five months ago indicates that he owns about $100,000 worth of stock in the company. The school district pays him a $250,000 salary.

Scholastic has $16 million in contracts to provide L.A. Unified with reading material. Cortines said he abstains from any school district decisions having to do with the company. Former school board member Jeff Horton told the L.A. Times that the arrangement puts the district at a disadvantage as it attempts to turn around low reading scores. Other district observers said it gives the company an unfair advantage in its dealings with L.A. Unified.

Cortines became a director at Scholastic Corp. before the school board tapped him to lead the district. Current board members told the newspaper they have no problem with his ties to the company, and a former board member said no one vetted his outside employment in the rush to make him superintendent.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/02/lausds-cortines-on-scholastics-payroll.html

Apparently the job of L.A. Unified Superintendent of schools is so easy that Cortines can still put in time on the Scholastic's board. Hey, nice work if you can find it. Of course, Cortines would not dream of throwing any business from L.A. Scholastic's way. He lets you know that right up front.

But, if you were working in the L.A. schools right now, would you dare to suggest cutting back on purchase of Scholastic Corp.'s materials knowing your boss is on its board?

[madfloridian]

20. 16 million in contracts from Scholastic? Also remember Robert Bobb of Detroit.

When a group pays your salary you try to accommodate them. It's like they own you and the school system.

ALSO....remember Detroit's Robert Bobb? He's gets part of his salary from the Broad Foundation.

"- The Detroit Board of Education and community groups say private foundations are paying the head of the city's ailing public school system $145,000 a year in exchange for his support of charter schools - a glaring conflict of interest. The board says that Robert Bobb, emergency financial manager of Detroit Public Schools, is violating Michigan laws and its constitution by accepting the privately funded portion of his $425,000 annual salary.

Bobb is the only defendant in the complaint in Wayne County Court, Detroit. The board, two community groups and 26 people say the Los Angeles-based Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, which "aggressively promotes the spread of charter schools nationwide," pays Bobb $56,000, with the remaining $89,000 coming from "undisclosed private sources. Last year Bobb made $84,000 in such "supplemental compensation."

How could I forget Robert Bobb?

Thanks for the link about Scholastic. More items to add to my outrage.

[amborin]

21. and LAUSD has signed on to RTTT or whatever the acronym is for "race to the top" (i.e. the bottom)

[Greyhound]

22. i'm shocked,,,

really.
:kick:

[Nederland]

23. How do private schools compare?

Do administrators in private schools make this much money too?

[madfloridian]

29. It's not public money paying private school administrators....

and that is my gripe about it. These are public school superintendents with agendas that go beyond public education.

Ackerman and Rhee et al are managing public schools, thus their salaries concern me. And the fact that the criteria for the bonuses is not made public.

[Nederland]

31. I am concerned as well

I would be even more concerned if public school administrators made more than private ones. I know that private school teachers make less than public school teachers, and wondered if the trend was the same at the administrative level.

[Overseas]

28. K&R ! //nt

[distilledvinegar]

33. Some history on Ackerman

I've been reading your posts here for only a couple months, but this post about Ackerman finally convinced me to register and respond. She's got to be one of my very least favorite people in education.

In addition to the $100,000 retention bonus she is due in June 2011, she is then entitled to "discuss retention bonuses" with the school district (by July 30, 2011), to "determine possible retention bonuses for subsequent years." Her contract runs through June 30, 2013; why does she get a retention bonus for fulfilling her basic contract?

Based on what she did here in SF, I think Philadelphia can count on Arlene being gone by next August if she doesn't get a hefty increase in her "retention bonus." In SF, she convinced a lame-duck school board in a so-called emergency session to give her a $375k severance package if she left before her contract ended. No big surprise that within a year she resigned.

This is a link to a blog with a good collection of links with information about Ackerman's tenure in San Francisco:

http://edjustice.blogspot.com/2005/09/sf-schools-real-story-on.html

Here's another rather impressive collection of links to articles detailing her history in both SF and DC. She has quite a past, I have to wonder where she'll land next.

http://unrulyrus.com/rogues/ackerman_arlene.html

What's more, one of the former SFUSD board members who supported Ackerman and voted for her severance package, Dan Kelly, is now the head of the SF teachers' union, United Educators of San Francisco. And we're supposed to believe he's negotiating in good faith for our 877 pink-slipped teachers.

[tonysam]

34. Thanks for your post

She is a real stinkeroo.

[distilledvinegar]

35. oops oops

A made a major mistake - Dan Kelly is NOT the head of UESF, DENNIS Kelly is. Sorry! As far as I know there is NO relationship between the two. Sorry, sorry, sorry!

[madfloridian]

36. Wow, good links. She sounds like she is out for herself only.

When you get the high schools students on your back, you know you got problems. SO what did they do? Ship her off to Philly. :eyes:

http://edjustice.blogspot.com/2005/09/sf-schools-real-story-on.html

"SF Magazine September 2005 - “ Ackerman's Last Stand
By Rob Waters
The last few months have been one long schoolyard brawl for Arlene Ackerman, San Francisco's embattled superintendent of schools. She's no stranger to conflict, of course; her tenure here has been full of high drama. But during the spring and summer, tensions between her and most of the key players she deals with seemed to have reached the breaking point.

Faced with declining enrollment and huge funding cuts, she and members of the Board of Education spent numerous meetings sniping at each other and agonizing over which schools to close and whom to lay off. Parents, teachers, custodians, and even kids alternated between begging the board to spare their school or job and blasting the superintendent and the board for their callousness and irresponsibility.

Then things got personal. In June, former supervisor and mayoral wannabe Matt Gonzalez filed a lawsuit to void the rich new contract ($250,000 salary, $2,000-a-month housing allowance, and $375,000 severance package, even if she quits) that school board members—including one lame duck—awarded Ackerman late last year in an unusual, specially scheduled meeting. And it wasn't just Gonzalez who lashed out. Even high school students on the district's student advisory council voted 14-0 (with one abstention) to ask Ackerman to renegotiate her contract.

Ackerman's response—more parental than professional—only inflamed matters. When she heard about what the students were up to, she tried to cancel their meeting. And after the vote, her public relations office put out a bizarre 30-page press packet denouncing the students and unnamed people for "using students to further adult political agendas."