Warren High School raises out of line
From time to time someone in the public eye utters a phrase that just makes an editorial writer's job too easy.
Such is the case with Warren Township High School board President John Anderson's comment last week about a pay increase for Superintendent Phil Sobocinski.
"A 6 percent raise is not really out of the ordinary in anybody's world," Anderson said.
Actually, it's out of line in almost everybody's world, where raises will average less than 3 percent in 2009, reported Lincolnshire-based human resources consulting firm Hewitt Associates in January. That's for those lucky enough to have jobs, considering another 162,962 people in the U.S. got pink slips last month at the top 500 public companies alone, Forbes reported.
Unfortunately, the Gurnee-area school board didn't stop with an abundantly generous one-year raise.
Instead, taxpayers will keep on giving - 6 percent for each of the next three years in a sort of balloon payment meant to boost Sobocinski's taxpayer-supported pension after he retires in 2012.
Apparently feeling constrained by the 6 percent limit set by the state for pre-retirement pay hikes - which will raise Sobocinski's annual salary to $228,290 for the 2011-12 school year - the school board also gave him a $500 monthly travel allowance and a $10,000 bonus if he stays at Warren until his retirement on June 30, 2012 and then obtains medical insurance coverage elsewhere.
On top of that, he will get an additional 200 sick days - more than an entire 185-day school year - that he can cash in if unused.
Anderson said the package was needed to keep Sobocinski from defecting to a different school before his retirement, a scenario that seems unlikely given the current housing and job markets.
Only one school board member, Richard Conley, opposed the deal for Sobocinski, which came alongside a four-year deal with 6 percent annual raises for Assistant Superintendent for Personnel Mary Perry Bates, who will be paid $175,662 a year by the time she retires in June 2013.
Salary and benefits packages like that are outrageous in these times.
They're simply unfathomable given the faith and trust in their school officials shown by Warren Township voters, who approved $30 million in borrowing for the high school district in a referendum last November, just as the nation dove into its worst economic recession since the 1930s.
The raises and benefits packages are a done deal.
At this point, taxpayers' only recourse is careful consideration of who they trust with their money. Six candidates are running for four terms in the April 7 election.
We urge you to take the time to learn about the candidates and to vote on Election Day.