Neale's pay grows in new year

Outgoing Superintendent Connie Neale this year will cost district taxpayers more than $750,000.

Neale will get a raise when the recently negotiated Elgin Area School District U-46 teachers contract is approved at the Jan. 14 board meeting.

The raise will bring Neale's total compensation this year to more than half a million dollars.

Neale has been living in Joplin, Mo., since she went on medical leave in September, yet remains on the district's payroll.

Neale's 2007-08 salary, like U-46 teachers, will increase by an automatic 3.8 percent raise. She'll also get a raise for experience, called a step increase, of roughly 1.9 percent.

Together, that brings her salary up to $284,243.

She won't collect her full salary, however. She'll retire Feb. 25 and receive a prorated salary of $186,228.

Salary isn't the only source of money pouring into Neale's Missouri bank account. There still are annuity payments, bonuses, insurance costs, membership dues, paid expenses and pension costs.

It cost taxpayers $13,067 to move Neale's things to Joplin. And an extra $400 to reset and relocate her grandfather and cuckoo clocks.

She gets a $650 monthly car allowance, which over eight months will total $5,200.

The district also will pay Neale's membership dues to organizations including the Illinois Association of School Administrators, the American Association of School Administrators and the Illinois Association for Supervision, Curriculum and Instruction. The total cost of yearly dues to these four groups is $1,173.

Add in health, disability and liability insurance costs; the district's $44,000 yearly contribution to Neale's annuity; a $26,302 retirement bonus; and nearly $50,000 in state pension costs and Neale's 2007-08 package totals just over $535,000.

The salary and benefit cost for a new U-46 teacher, according to the district, is around $60,000. Neale's deal is nine times that.

And there's more.

The district also is paying Milwaukee-based Proact Search Inc. $27,000, plus up to $18,000 in expenses, to conduct a search for a new superintendent. Neale's contract had been approved to run until June 30, 2011.

In the meantime, Interim Superintendent Mary Jayne Broncato is being paid $1,100 a day to run the state's second-largest school district, up to a maximum of $198,000.

In all, between pay and benefits, a new superintendent search and the cost of an interim, Neale likely will wind up costing U-46 taxpayers more than $778,000 this year.

Retirement

For her five years with U-46, Neale will receive annual pension payments from the Illinois Teacher's Retirement System for the rest of her life, worth nearly $850,000 if she lives to be 80.

In the first year of retirement, her Illinois pension will be worth about $36,000. The pension payout then increases annually.

In her retirement agreement, the district estimated that Neale will have 350 unused sick days when she retires Feb. 25. The district plans to report 340 of those sick days to the TRS pension plan to count as two years of service credit, which will increase the annual pension payments at Illinois taxpayer expense. Neale will be paid cash for the remaining days.

Neale also will collect pensions from Kansas and Texas, where she worked before coming to Elgin.

Additionally, her contract with U-46 calls for an array of post-retirement benefits, including contributions to her annuity for five years and complete medical, dental and long-term care insurance for her and her husband for the rest of her life. Most of these perks were not included in her original 2002 contract.

The medical, dental and long-term care insurance alone could be worth more than a half-million dollars if Neale lives to be 80.

Aftermath

Elgin-area teachers and taxpayers alike have long cried foul over Neale's contract enhancements.

A year ago, school board member Dan Rich resigned, saying he felt Neale had "held the board hostage" when she asked for a $60,000 raise and bonus that brought her total pay package to more than $400,000 a year.

Elgin Teachers Association President Tim Davis last week acknowledged that Neale affected the contract negotiation process.

"Neale is one of the reasons why bargaining this year took longer than it ever has in the past," he said, "and the fact that the first tentative agreement wasn't voted on until well into the 2007-08 school year."

Union members rejected the first tentative agreement Oct. 15 by a vote of 1,183, or 51.3 percent, to 1,125, or 48.7 percent.

"It was a vote of frustration," Davis said. "(The district) wasn't focused on the most important issues -- what was going on in our classrooms."

Davis hopes the board has learned their lesson from their experience with Neale.

"I hope as they move forward with the new search, that they keep that in mind," he said.

Neale declined comment, according to her husband, reached Friday in Joplin.

School board President Ken Kaczynski, however, acknowledges Neale's expenses add up, yet said he "doesn't know how to answer the question if it got out of hand."

Contractual amendments were approved for a reason, he said, citing that U-46 has emerged from $40.7 million in debt and is academically stronger after Neale's five years of service.

How Neale's pay package will affect the current search for a new superintendent, he "can't speculate," Kaczynski said.

"It's extremely unfair to both the community and whoever this new superintendent is to speculate on their salary right now," Kaczynski said.

"Our kids deserve the best we can give them," he said, "and if we believe that, that comes with a certain price tag for every employee that we have."

Neale's final year cost

Salary* $186,228

403(b) retirement annuity $44,000

Retirement bonus $26,259

116.5 unused vacation days $126,875

10 unused sick days $10,890

Disability insurance $4,800

Long-term health insurance $4,800

Legal liability insurance $300

Health insurance costs $12,000

Automobile allowance $5,200

Home office costs $500

Membership dues $1,173

Teacher Health Insurance System $3,150

Teacher Retirement System $43,534

Moving costs $13,469

Kansas pension upgrade $52,022

Total $535,201

*Salary is prorated at 171 days; full salary is $284,243

Source: U-46 business office; Connie Neale contract and retirement agreement; Comcast