District 158 board OKs benefits package for administrators

In a 4-3 vote, the Huntley Unit District 158 school board Thursday approved a benefits package for most administrators.

District officials and board members said the move merely formalizes the level of benefits administrators currently receive.

"This whole thing wasn't to grant new benefits to administrators," board President Shawn Green said. "This was just to formalize what we've been doing."

Under the guidelines approved Thursday, administrators will get three weeks of vacation -- 15 days -- during their first five years and four weeks after that.

Administrators also will get two personal days, 14 sick days, life insurance, health coverage and contributions to their retirement fund.

The benefits do not apply to the superintendent and associate superintendent, whose contracts are negotiated individually.

Most District 158 administrators earn below average compared to other large districts in Illinois, and many administrators earn well below average, according to a survey by the Large Unit District Association.

Their benefits, however, are in line with those at other large school districts in the state.

But District 158's administrative benefits have come under scrutiny recently.

Board members say former Superintendent Steve Swanson gave administrators extra vacation days in 2004 without board approval.

By formalizing the standard benefits package for administrators, district officials hope to avoid the controversy the benefits have generated in recent years.

"We've had so much criticism, and rightly so because things were not formalized in the past," Superintendent John Burkey said Thursday.

Three board members --Green, Larry Snow and Aileen Seedorf -- voted against the benefits package.

Snow said approving the package wasn't appropriate while the district is negotiating a new teachers' contract.

"At some other point in time, we should do this," Snow said Thursday. "It should not be tonight."

The ground rules agreed to by the district and teachers bar either side from publicly commenting on the teachers' contract during negotiations.

Snow also said that while the benefits package is a reflection of what administrators receive this year, this year's benefits are an increase over previous years'.

"It's just not financially sound," he said Friday.

District officials and other board members said they didn't see the connection between administrator benefits and the teachers contract because increases in teacher or administrator pay are not tied to each other.

"They're not connected at all," Burkey said, adding that teachers' raises over the past four years have actually been above what administrators received.

The superintendent also denied administrators got an increase in benefits this year.

"Nothing changed in the benefit package from what has been given in the past," Burkey said.

Green said he voted against the benefits package because he thinks principals should get more vacation days -- not because he views the package as an increase or questions the timing of the move.