At the last Leon County School Board meeting, the Board voted unanimously to award $400,000 in non-recurring pay enhancements to administrative and exempt employees. The action was recommended by Superintendent Rocky Hanna.
TR was told by Chris Petley, the LCS Coordinator of Communications and Media Relations, that the pay enhancement was presented as a non-recurring item for the 2019-2020 year “in preparation for anticipated budget cuts next year.”
A list of the positions that qualified for the enhancement are listed below.
The list includes Assistant Superintendent and Director positions which are paid in excess of $100,000.
The one-time pay enhancement of $1,440 was approved for LCS employees who were not members of a bargaining unit. The item presented to the Board stated that the action “is in accordance with the increases given to members of the following bargaining units: LESPA and Local 1010; District Council 78 International Union of Painters and Allied Trades AFL-CIO.”
The $1,440 will be paid over a three month period beginning in April.
LCS Board Votes to Give $400,000 in “Pay Enhancements” to Administrative, Exempt Employees added by Steve Stewart on
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What about bus Driver and Bus Assistance? What happens to us? Do we count in this. We work hard then any body in Leon county, because we are first proprietary. That not fair and you need to think that over please count us in. Thank you
With the amount of money these guys and ladies make, why do they need a pay increase? Maybe that money could have been out toward running the AC during the summer for the workers that have to work in those spaces?
Executive Assistant to the Superintendent makes more than I do after 30+ years in the profession as a licensed medical professional.
Why don’t we have appointed superintendents? How can we get that started?
Hey N
How many Principals and AP’s work two and three jobs? None. How many Principals and AP’s make the 46th lowest paid salaries in Florida? None. $400,000 in these times is Rocky trying to buy votes
As a school administrator if you had $400,000 and students without laptops, families that need hot spots, schools that need supplies you would first give raises to administrators? If yes, Rocky has a spot for you in his administration.
Administrators need a raise too! We have principals and AP’s out here working there behinds off they have families too!
Dear School Board Members and Superintendent Hanna,
Cronyism is the practice of partiality in awarding jobs and other advantages to friends or trusted colleagues. For instance, this includes appointing “cronies” to positions of authority, regardless of their qualifications.
When the school board approved Assistant Superintendents into positions that were never advertised they were complicent and endorsing the unethical behavior of Rocky Hanna. Now they have given pay raises to these people to further enable the Superintendent to belittle our teacher with low salaries.
Fat cats a new way of work in Leon Schools!
Rocky is now the head vet in the fat cat club..
Vote Keisha Washington for your next Superintendent ?
We wonder why there is a teacher shortage. 46th is pay with no job security. So sad.
To Adam. Thanks for the bloated government the good citizens have voted for. They made what they sow. Interesting i have a doll, point to where on the doll the orange man hurt you. Would it be your head
Something about doling out big bucks at this time when so many are suffering so much stinks to High Heaven.
I call on everyone that put their name publicly out there as Hanna supporters to post some fabricated leftist reason you are gonna pull out of your stink to low Hell dirt hole some lame excuses as to why this blessing of the loyalists is a good thing.
Come on now we are waiting…lets see now…who should we start with…oh I know…City Commissioner and “conflict of interest” do little at your School Board high paying position…lets start with you!!
Come on now Curtis tell us why this is a good thing…
Oh and Curtis could you preach on the virtues of this fatty pay raise to the elite in your best Obama imitation voice?
Come on you know…let me get you started…”Well…Uhh…This raise is…Uhh…a good thing because…Uhh…_________________________________.
You know what to do my man just sprinkle in another “Uhh” every 3rd or 4th word.
Really looking forward on you enlightening your bosses “THE PUBLIC” on this Curtis and all you other elite Hanna supporters + anyone that received some of that HAA HAA money…RINO Commissioner DeSlodge thats your queue!!!!
tl;dr roughly the same $1,500 amount was given to ALL non-teacher employees of the Leon County School system. The vote was unanimous (initially moved by Rosanne Wood), likely because the members understood they had already given the same amount to the workers who make the system possible.
The key phrase is “in accordance with the increases given” to the support personnel. Members of LESPA (admin staff, teacher aides, nurses, etc) and Local 1010 (custodians, cooks, bus drivers, etc) were given a $0.75/hr raise; over a full-time work year (estimated 2,000 hours) this comes out to $1,500. The senior admin and exempt personnel (i.e. salaried workers, not hourly wage-earners) were given a “one-time” payment of $1,440 spread out over 3 months.
While looking into this, it was nice to see that all LCS employees make at least $11/hr. We should aim to maintain and improve this level of support for the wonderful people who make sure our children are safe and cared for.
For anyone interested, this is agenda item 19.04 and can be seen at roughly 3:23:30 into the 3:31:09 LCSB meeting on April 28, 2020; it’s available on YouTube. The multi-year LESPA and Local 1010 contracts can be found on Leon Schools website (though it’s probably easier to Google them because that site is a hot mess); the appendices contain employee classifications and wage parameters.
There’s certainly some shady stuff in LCSB administration, but this isn’t it. Tallahassee Reports should do a better job of giving a broader picture rather than cherry-picking facts to cause sensationalist headlines.
What would be an appropriate headline?
A great headline Cash for Cronyism: Do Highly Paid Non Interviewed Administrators Need A $1,400 Raise?
The federal government put a ceiling on stimulus at $75,000 but not Rocky who is trying to but votes! Time to eat your words Rocky.
tl;dr I would title this “LCSB Approves $X.XM in Raises” or “LCSB Approves X.X% in Raises, Expects X.X% Budget Cuts” after finding out the information regarding “bargaining unit employees” and the anticipated cuts.
Just as the meetings are regularly scheduled, so should the articles. I would title this “LCSB Meeting Recap, April 28, 2020” and include far more of the meeting. But that doesn’t get as many clicks.
This agenda item (re: the multi-part non-recurring payments) was certainly the most controversial part of it all and definitely deserves to be covered. But no one who reads this will know about the continued work of LCS through COVID-19 to identify at-risk youth, or have an update on technology initiatives to enable distance learning, or know anything about graduation plans for seniors, or know how 4th nine-weeks grades will be calculated and plenty more. A far more sensational aspect of the meeting was regarding this last point: Rocky again comes out and says that he doesn’t want to announce a plan because he’s worried about students taking the easy way out like he did at school; cue the “who’s to say he doesn’t keep doing that in this job?” refrain. This article/interpretation just seems like a lazy way to get people riled up, while not giving them much information. As far as I can tell nothing was incorrect, just purposefully incomplete from my perspective.
If the intention is to stick solely with the money (again, definitely the most engaging aspect for the reader), I wouldn’t take away or edit any of the writing in the article (it’s very plainly correct); but I would give a recap of the previous commitment to “bargaining unit employees”, including the total amount *those* raises are expected to impact the budget (which is $533.4M, another thing that should be included). I might change the title to “LCSB Approves $X.XM in Raises”, after finding out the total amount for “bargaining unit employees”. Or even “LCSB Approves X.X% in Raises, Expects X.X% Budget Shortfall”, to stay on the fear-mongering side (see point 6 below). It would be helpful to reinforce to readers that money tends to work on a fiscal calendar and once the year is over the money doesn’t necessarily roll over (see point 5 below); government money usually doesn’t work the same as private enterprise money.
The comment from LCS was nice, but it may be helpful to also (1) get a comment on teacher raises; (2) get a comment on the situation from LESPA, Local 1010, and LCTA; (3) get a comment on LCS position on current proposed legislation re: teacher raises (even though the budget may be due for an overhaul); (4) ask about the optics of giving a raise in these times; (5) ask what fiscal bucket the money is coming from and any follow-ups to that; and (6) ask for an estimate of next year’s budget shortfalls and potential impacts. Board members are at home right now like the rest of us, maybe they’d be interested in a phone call/email to provide more detailed comment.
On the whole though, I sincerely thank TR for covering local and state news. It’s wonderful to have an additional media outlet to report on things that don’t get covered in the same way or even brought to light elsewhere.
Interesting diversion. Read Rocky’s words
“Hanna also railed against highly paid administrators within the school district and slammed the administration for diverting money for school supplies to other purposes. Hanna stood next to a placard displaying the salaries of LCS’s top administrators, including his own, which was $108,000 annually. He noted the districtwide raises also went to “fat cat” administrators, which he said included his divisional director job.”
Enough said. Rocky is caught in a web of lies and misinformation.
This is why teachers look at other counties to work in. Low wages and high insurance. Just a slap in the face.
Steve,
Please ask Superintendent Hanna, each school board member and each person listed above to comment on the raises given costing $400,000 that could have been spent on teacher professional development, classroom supplies or materials. Specifically read them the quote from Rocky, print each illuminating response to Rocky’s own words!
“Hanna also railed against highly paid administrators within the school district and slammed the administration for diverting money for school supplies to other purposes. Hanna stood next to a placard displaying the salaries of LCS’s top administrators, including his own, which was $108,000 annually. He noted the districtwide raises also went to “fat cat” administrators, which he said included his divisional director job.”
I just took a vote to reduce my 2020 property taxes by 10%.
It was a unanimous decision that I should.
Rocky you are a misguided person. I think you need to comment on your words when you campaigned:
“Hanna also railed against highly paid administrators within the school district and slammed the administration for diverting money for school supplies to other purposes. Hanna stood next to a placard displaying the salaries of LCS’s top administrators, including his own, which was $108,000 annually. He noted the districtwide raises also went to “fat cat” administrators, which he said included his divisional director job.”
Rocky, you put fat cats in jobs without interviews, you took care of your life long buddy Scott Hansen. Whoever gave or gives to your campaign should revisit your words, they should revisit your history of dating teachers as a Principal, they should revisit your falsification of material to start a federal investigation ( something you admitted doing), they should revisit you hiding from child support until sued.
You actions and your words tell us who you are.
School board members care to comment?
Rocky is a disgusting person. These are the people that don’t deserve any money. The teachers deserve it. He sure took care of his buddy, Scott Hanson.
Wow…all while district officials and school administrators discuss teacher cuts, increased class sizes, and resource cuts for Fall. This is simply an “Election Year” payout to keep the minions in line and quiet.
Teachers will remember come August when they look over and don’t see the teacher they have taught with for years.
Contact your School Board Members today and make sure they protect teachers, their compensation plans, and classroom resources. Don’t reduce their insurance benefits, don’t ask them to teach during their planning time, and don’t make up the funding gaps on the backs of our educators. Ask them to eliminate the waste at the top first!
Vote out the ones you can this Fall!
Hey teachers, how you like them apples?
With so many out of work, teachers who worked 2 and 3 jobs due to the low salaries set by Rocky cannot make ends meet and he and the school board give these people raises? Unreal.
Assistant Superintendent Michelle Gayle — $125,407
Assistant Superintendent Alan Cox — $123,433
Assistant Superintendent Kathleen Rodgers — $123,185
Chief of Safety and Security John Hunkiar — $121,604
Chief Financial Officer Kim Banks — $118,920
Assistant Superintendent Gillian Gregory — $116,587
Assistant Superintendent Deana McAllister — $112,204
Director of Elementary Schools Sue Kraul — $109,094
Director of Secondary Schools Scott Hansen — $106,384
Director of Technology and Information Bill Nimmons — $102,422
Director of Staff Development Shane Syfrett — $102,422
Director of Purchasing June Kail — $98,738
Director of Property Management Michael Moore — $96,557
Director of Early Childhood Programs Brooke Brunner — $95,779
Director of Food Services James Howcroft — $92,838
Director of Construction Danny Allbritton — $91,920
Director of Maintenance Alvin Watkins — $90,720
Director of ESE Operations and Compliance Cathy Shields — $89,395
Director of Payroll Deena Howell — $88,922
Director of Code Enforcement, Compliance Rod McQueen — $86,912
Director of Risk Management Services Janet Heath — $82,996
Interim Director of Transportation James Cole — $81,252
Director of Internal Auditing Livetra Paul — $80,501
Director, Interdivisional Support Services Ricky Bell — $77,967
Director of Benefits Pam Faulkner — $74,851
Coordinator of School Choice Office Jamie Holleman — $73,920
Coordinator of Title 1 Office Ashley Scott — $71,920
Coordinator of Communications and Media Relations Chris Petley — $71,790
Coordinator of Volunteer and Mentor Services Kelli Walker — $67,924
Coordinator of Policy and Planning Marline Feliciano — $66,605
Executive Assistant to the Superintendent Sha’Rhonda Brown — $56,924
Leon County teachers are the 46th lowest paid in Florida, now this. I at a loss for words, other than this is humiliation for every teacher.