From school board to central office?: Newly created position stirs controversy
|
If selected, he will follow school system human resources director Roy Pierce as the second school board chairman in four years to have gone directly from the head of the board to a specially created position at the central office.
Sneed recently chose not to seek reelection to a third school board term in the August general election. State law prohibits public school employees from serving on school boards.
Director of Schools Dr. Jerry Hale says the creation of the new position, director of safety and custodial services, is part of a re-shuffling of the central office intended to increase system efficiency and save taxpayers a substantial amount of money. As for Sneed’s applying he said, “This is America. If jobs are open anyone can apply. We can’t be prohibitive.”
To make room for the new position school officials will, as of June 30, abolish the similar position of Director of Purchasing and Safety, currently held by 34-year system veteran Phillip Stout.
“It’s the principle of the thing that gets me,” said Stout. “You work 34 years and they abolish your job when you’re doing it right. You know how you’d feel. This just isn’t something you expect when you’re doing a good job.”
The current position, said Pierce, is responsible for a hodgepodge of unrelated duties, from maintaining school safety procedures, to ordering such items as student desks, school cleaning supplies and copy paper. Because the position also involves textbook selection and ordering, it requires a college degree.
The new position, which is set to begin July 1, will be responsible only for the school system’s safety program and the custodial services of all county schools.
The latter responsibility was added, said Hale and Pierce, to ensure all county schools are maintained at an adequate level of cleanliness. This comes in response to a school board cost-saving plan which cut the number of custodians and saw some schools get dirtier.
With the new position, Stout’s other responsibilities, such as textbook ordering, will likely fall to system director of instruction Bobby Cox.
Unlike the current position, the new one will not require a college degree, only a high school diploma or GED, supervisory experience and maintenance knowledge and abilities. School operation experience is preferred, according to the job description.
“We wanted to take the college education part out of it and to make it more in-line with the work involved,” said Pierce.
The salary for the new position, Pierce said, will begin around $27,600 to 28,800 a year. This will be a savings of over $22,000 a year, plus benefits, as compared to Stout’s current salary.
For his part, Stout said he was “kind of shocked” when he was told by Hale his job would no longer exist at the beginning of the coming fiscal year. He said it was his plan to work only one additional year, through the end of the 2004-2005 school year, before retiring. This extra year would allow him, he said, to raise his average salary over the last five years of his career, thus giving him higher retirement benefits.
“I’m not bitter,” he said. “That’s not my style. I guess it’s time to do something else. I have other options I want to do. It’ll all work out. I’ve already had another offer.”
Stout said while he was offered a teaching position next year, he will instead retire a year ahead of time as he has not been in the classroom for 23 years and there is no financial advantage to returning.
In advertising the new position, Pierce said he sent a job posting open only three days to county principals, whose responsibility it is to see their subordinates have access to any and all system openings. He said he did not post the job in the newspaper or any other public venue as “we don’t advertise any support positions that we have qualified applicants for.” In the near future, he said, such positions will be advertised on the system’s Web site, as those for certified positions currently are.
Of the two candidates for the new position, neither is a current school system employee. In addition to Sneed, the second candidate is Cynthia Campen, a former county teacher who said she is interested in getting back in the system and heard about the opening by word of mouth. She said she was not aware the other candidate for the job is chairman of the school board.
Asked over the phone Monday whether he had a job lined up with the school system, Sneed replied, “I’m working on one, but I can’t say anything yet. No decision has been made. I’m pursuing other things too, that’s why I didn’t run (for reelection).”
Sneed took A.O. Smith’s early retirement option at the end of last year and is currently unemployed.
While he picked up school board qualifying papers some time ago, Sneed said he didn’t make the decision not to seek a third term until the morning of March 31, the day before the qualifying deadline. He waited, he said, until he found out he could not legally hold both his school board seat and the position of system director of safety and custodial services.
“I don’t know if I will get the job, which made the decision very hard,” he said.
Upon making his decision, Sneed called, that same morning, his longtime friend John Turner, who had previously expressed an interest in the 6th District school board seat should Sneed not seek reelection.
“I promised him if I ever gave up the seat I’d let him know,” Sneed said.
After being informed of Sneed’s decision, Turner then picked up qualifying papers at the election office and returned them completed the next day, only 30 minutes before the noon qualifying deadline April 1. As he is unopposed in the election, he will assume Sneed’s seat Sept. 1.
Though they will not go on the record for fear of losing their jobs, many county teachers have expressed their concern at what they see as blatant cronyism at the central office.
“This smacks of Tammany Hall,” said one teacher, referring to the 19th Century New York corrupt political machine run by “Boss” William Tweed. “They seem to be doing whatever they want, whether or not it is the right thing. They create positions that have never existed, while at the same time saying they never have any money for us (teachers).”
School board vice chairman Larry Judkins said it is his personal belief there is nothing illegal or unethical in Sneed’s seeking the newly created position, though he admits others might not see it that way.
“Personally, I hope the system will hire the most qualified person for the job. If that’s David, so be it. I don’t think it was anyone’s intention to work for the school system when they got on the board, but I realize public perception. I realize how it looks.”