What can District 54 have been thinking?

Thank you to the Daily Herald for continuing to report the embarrassing mess that School District 54 has itself in over their ghastly compensation of district administrators. In 2010, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Mohsin Dada was making $341,747 after receiving 22 percent increases for three consecutive years before his retirement.

This made him the third highest paid public school employee in the state.

The state’s retirement fund penalized the school district $97,000 for this and now the district lawyers are going to appeal. This raises so many questions:

Ÿ Why would you ever pay the assistant business manager $341,747?

Ÿ Why would you raise the individual’s pay 22 percent three years in a row before he retired unless you thought that you wouldn’t have to pay the bill?

Ÿ When found out and penalized for this why would you incur further legal fees in fighting the penalty for your actions?

Ÿ Why would you remind the general public that you continue to waste our tax dollars on this stuff?

Ÿ Why do we have so many administrators in our public school system and really what is it that they do that makes an assistant anything worth $341,747 a year?

And finally why are “retired” administrators allowed to go and get another full-time job in another school district as Mr. Dada has, when teachers are not allowed to teach full-time once they are retired?

Practices like this are just a part of the pension crisis but proof that school districts still don’t “get it”.

Thanks to District 54 and the Daily Herald for keeping this issue in front of us.

Jack Halpin

Arlington Heights