D211 approves performance-based administrator pay raises

The Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 board late Thursday night approved the concept of a performance-based system, which would determine pay increases for administrators.

The current system allows for fixed raises across-the-board for associate and assistant superintendents.

The evaluation process and criteria for raises under the new system haven’t been finalized, District 211 Superintendent Nancy Robb said after a closed session with the school board that extended past 11 p.m.

“It’s going to be based on performance, and that’s what the board felt was most important: That you hold people accountable for their performance,” Robb said.

The board discusses administrator pay every year, board President Robert LeFevre said. The board decided to wait after the April election, which saw two new board members seated, to discuss the issue.

Retaining administrators remains a problem in District 211, LeFevre added. District 211 teachers interested in administration and external candidates need to know their pay will be competitive compared to surrounding districts.

“Retention is an issue; we’ve had high-quality people that have left in past years,” he said.

Being flexible with raises instead of offering a percentage written in stone will help, official said. Robb said the board asked her to come up with the system last April. The current system was implemented in 2004 and affects about 60 employees.

LeFevre said pay shouldn’t be the only thing that ensures quality administrators, but it helps. He mentioned District 211’s atmosphere, resources and stability as other assets.

District 211 administrative salaries range from $51,233 to $165,691, according to information posted on the district’s website. In Barrington Unit District 220, administrative pay ranges from $70,000 to $164,125. In Northwest Suburban High School District 214, which posts figures that include bonuses and retirement benefits, the range is $60,000 to $167,735.

The board separately approved granting 1.5 percent salary increases to all of its other nonunion employees, which include cafeteria, clerical, technology and transportation staff.

Robb said the board will have to approve individual raises for administrators, but the evaluation system has yet to be finalized. Robb said she would have more to share next month.

Board members Anna Klimkowicz and Bill Robertson, like their peers, voted for implementing the performance-based system in the future. However, the pair opposed the separate motion granting as yet undetermined raises to administrators.

“It’s kind of ironic this is something that came up in my campaign and now it comes up so quickly,” said Robertson, who also cast the only vote against raises for nonunion employees.

Though he’s an assistant principal at Jefferson High School in Rockford, Robertson made it clear before the April election that he opposed administrative pay hikes.

“We certainly want to attract and retain quality administrators, but again due to the current economic times, I do not support any salary increases,” Robertson said.

Klimkowicz wondered where the district would find the money for the raises. And she said she couldn’t support raises when some of her clients — homeless and poor — at the CEDA Northwest Self-Help Center in Mount Prospect are struggling paying bills.

“It’s just difficult to be told our administrators are on the low end of pay compared to our fellow districts,” she said.

LeFevre said the performance-based evaluations will boost the district’s four goals: Balancing the budget, academic achievement, leadership development and technology.

“I think just the idea of evaluating people’s performances and paying for performance makes more sense to about anyone walking the planet,” he said.

Some administrators could see pay cuts or freezes under the performance-based system. The board is spending responsibly, LeFevre added of the raises, referencing the 2005 voter-approved tax hike.

“That’s very consistent in the philosophical approach that we had when we encouraged the community to commit several years back to support the referendum,” he said.

District 211 teachers in 2009 agreed to a five-year deal which froze base pay in the first year and granted raises for the remaining four years dependent on the rate of inflation.

District 211 includes Conant, Fremd, Hoffman Estates, Palatine and Schaumburg high schools and it’s the state’s largest high school district.