$62,000 to keep superintendent's contract private

This just in to the newsroom: $62,498.91.

That's the amount Wheaton Warrenville District 200 has spent in legal fees trying to keep a former superintendent's contract out of the hands of a resident.

The Daily Herald filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain that figure, which was provided by the district within the time frame allowed by law - neatly, succinctly and clearly breaking down the costs at the trial, appellate and state supreme court levels.

Is the cost worth it? That's where we disagree.

In the grand scheme of things, especially when it comes to litigation, we've seen far more costly cases. And $62,000 is a relative pittance for a school district spending $213 million in 2008-09.

But it's also a school district that just agreed to borrow $20 million rather than make another $7 million in cuts to next year's budget. The district already has slashed $7.4 million, and may be laying off dozens of staffers. Wouldn't it be nice to use that $62,000 to save a job or two?

School board members up for re-election, when they met with Wheaton editor and reporter Robert Sanchez and me recently, said they have no quarrel with divulging the salary, benefits and perks of former Superintendent Gary Catalani. But they say portions of his contract that lay out his performance goals and objectives are confidential personnel matters. Furthermore, they say, the case between resident Mark Stern and the district has expanded, and it now holds implications for other administrators, such as principals; their performance plans could be subject to public scrutiny or posted on a Web site or a Facebook page or whatever.

One candidate put it something like this: What if the world got to look at Robert's performance objectives, say, the part where we order him to go out and "dig up some dirt." We all laughed at that.

But there are a couple of valuable points to be made amid the mirth. First, of all, Robert is not a public employee, his salary is not paid by the taxpayers. And while some might be fascinated if I shared the "dig up some dirt" component, it's pretty much Robert's business and mine (well, and the HR department, my boss, etc.) More to point, isn't it relevant to the residents of District 200 what their schools chief has been asked to accomplish?

(We have a copy of Catalani's contract, by the way. There's some disagreement on how we came by it, but the incumbent candidates say Catalani gave it to us. They say they would have refused us, as they've refused Stern.)

I've gone through the 29-page document, and frankly, I'm not sure I see what's so terribly sensitive. The juicy stuff - Catalani's base pay ($176,500 when the contract began in 2002), his car allowance, sick time, vacations and such) are spelled out in the first 21 pages. The final eight pages detail three main goals for Catalani: Successfully negotiate deals with teachers and other employee groups; increase student achievement; engage in a "dialogue with the community" to get feedback about how the district's doing. (And, hey, here's something interesting: He was supposed to write a letter to local newspapers each month, discussing district issues.) Seriously, that's the most jaw-dropping thing I saw; the rest details how he goes about negotiations, specifies what he does to pump up student test scores and other benchmarks and outlines what groups he should be meeting with to talk up the district. It's pretty basic stuff, and personally, I'd think any school board and superintendent should be telling the community - in spades - that they're trying to accomplish these things.

And. in the spirit of full disclosure, I'll share a portion of Robert's performance plan.

"KRA (Key Results Area) No. 1: Direct staff to ensure quality of local coverage."

That's newspaper corporatespeak for "dig up some dirt."

jdavis@dailyherald.com