Daily Archives: November 5, 2012

Hmmm, The Kent Board seems to be on to something here…..maybe a crack in the foundation? Reply

by • POSTS, COMMENTS, VIDEO AND AUDIO

An excerpt from the Republican-American today

http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2012/11/04/news/local/681535.txt

(full story available at above link)

KENT — The Region 1 school district is debating whether three-year administrator contracts should be adjusted annually. The All Boards Chairmen Committee of the region, which serves Canaan, Cornwall, Falls Village, Kent, Salisbury and Sharon, asked its members to survey their local school boards determine if members want to change the process. The Kent Board of Education weighed in Thursday. The Region 1 Board of Education will likely address the question at its meeting at 6 p.m. today. The region currently maintains three-year contracts for each of the five administrators paid through the central office, also known as the Regional School Services Center. Because each contract includes salary figures for only one year, the contracts are revised yearly.
After the Region 1 budget was defeated, the administrators voluntarily agreed in May to forego the extension so the current contracts expire June 2014. The budget was approved May 31.
Kent’s board discussed hav­ng a more formal process for the multiple-year contracts that would include a timetable of raises similar to the one used in teacher contracts. Member CiCi Nielsen said that she supported setting the salary for more than one year because reopening the contracts creates such public discourse, discussion and disagreement. “It gets tiring,” she said. Chairman Paul Cortese noted that the ABC Committee and the Region 1 board have done nothing wrong by granting a one-year extension to the contracts each year, but he listened as board members said they didn’t want to get into salary discussions every year. Member Allan Priaux said that a three-year contract would make it easier for towns to plan ahead. Member Dana Slaughter said she didn’t think a one-year contract was fair and said renegotiating extensions did not seem to be a good use of time.
Others in the region are looking closely at the wording of the contracts. Patricia A. Mechare of Falls Village has all five contracts for this year and the previous one and has noticed some changes in wording that she thinks were done without board approval.