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Tempers flared and voices were raised to the point of yelling as school board President Gary Wray and member Noble Prettyman confronted each other over a report on administrative salaries presented to the board by Superintendent George Stone at its Thursday, Nov. 8 meeting.
“This is a snow job,” said Prettyman at the conclusion of Stone’s presentation, eliciting applause from attendees, including many parents. Prettyman, who had for more than three months been trying to obtain financial data regarding salaries and raises paid to Cape administrators during the past three years, said Stone and Wray held back the information the board and public requested.
Though the data was finally produced and explained by Director of Business Operations Edward Seibert, Prettyman said he will call for Wray’s removal as board president.
“Dr. Wray’s actions last night give me no choice but to ask that he be removed as president of the school board,” Prettyman said during an interview Friday, Nov. 9. “As parents spoke, he put his glasses on his head and rolled his eyes in a degrading way. It is unacceptable behavior, and I absolutely feel he cannot be allowed to be the board’s president any longer.”
In addition to inappropriate behavior to Cape’s parents and taxpayers, Prettyman said, Wray’s conduct in taking unilateral action, violating the trust of the taxpayers and soliciting unilateral action by the Stone violated the ethical requirements for board members.
“I want the board to join me in calling for his removal,” Prettyman said.
Wray said he was distressed at things that occurred during the Nov. 8 meeting but thought the administrative salary presentation was good. “George [Stone] was to present the state overview and Ed [Seibert] was to do a walk-through about the district,” Wray said.
Regarding Prettyman’s call for his removal as president, Wray said it takes four votes and added that Prettyman is entitled to his opinion. “We’ll see how it shakes out,” he said.
Board member Allan Redden said he would not support removal, but member Stell Selby said she is seriously considering it. Board member Pete Coveleski could not be reached for comment.
“The board has been kept in the dark,” Selby said. “It hurts me to see the district coming to this. It is not good to go into a board meeting knowing that children will have to suffer because of disrespectful and deceitful people at the top.”
Board member Spencer Brittingham said he wants to give Wray an opportunity to explain what he’s done. “If Dr. Wray has no clear and open explanation, there should be a restructuring of the board,” Brittingham said.
“I am very disappointed that the board has lost the community’s confidence,” board member Camilla Conlon said. “A change in leadership may be what it will take to regain the community’s trust,” she said, adding that she will represent the community and listen to what they say they need.
Salary presentations
Cape parents, media and school board members first requested the financial data during June 2007. They asked for the amounts administrators are paid and the amounts and sources of their raises during the past three years.
Stone and Wray repeatedly refused to release the information, though Seibert said he had finalized a report revealing the data during the first week of October and had extensively briefed Stone and Wray regarding its contents Oct. 18.
Prior to making his presentation Nov. 8, Stone and Wray offered apologies and excuses for failing to provide the information earlier, including Stone's desire to ensure accuracy.
Stone’s presentation consisted of his philosophy regarding administrative salaries, various statewide comparisons, a comparison of the number of Cape’s administrative employees during 1995 and 2005, job descriptions for administrators working in the district office, a comparison of Cape’s highest paid 10-month teacher to its lowest paid 12-month administrator and a five-point statement regarding local salary costs.
Stone also presented school board members with a 30-page document individually listing each administrator by title, breaking down their salaries and raises and the source of the monies used to pay those amounts. Seibert was to explain how the numbers on those 30 pages were derived – but no one else had copies eliciting objections from the crowd until Seibert and Assistant Superintendent Janis Hanwell passed copies out to the press and the people in the audience.
Seibert also produced a one-page administrator pay raise summary for this year and the last two years. It was Seibert who finally explained what each Cape administrator was making now and before, how much each had earned in raises and where the money for the raises came from.
Board members were visibly surprised to be informed that the practice of giving administrators a pay raise out of local tax dollars was not required but simply a long-standing practice – a practice that cost the district almost $61,000 in local tax dollars this year.
Attendees became agitated. “Even if we’re in debt and even if we’re sinking, you keep getting your raises?” a member of the crowd challenged, not satisfied with the explanation that the payment was the result of protocol.
“You’re signing contracts and you don’t know what they say,” said resident Bernice Edwards.
“If we were given the truth – if the board was more informed - we’d be in a better position regarding classroom size and discipline and everything,” said Brittingham.
“I agree,” Seibert said.
“Now you taxpayers know the truth,” Selby said.
Report errors
“There are errors in the presentation you made,” Seibert informed Stone. “I didn’t know it before, because this was the first time I ever saw it.”
Seibert’s name appears directly below Stone’s on the first page of the report, however, indicating he assisted in its preparation. “I had nothing to do with the preparation of the report,” Seibert said when questioned at the end of the board meeting. “I never saw it before tonight.”
People attending the meeting were allowed to ask questions, but when their questions or comments challenged the validity of the report, Wray would make disparaging actions.
“It’s disingenuous to show highest teacher against lowest administrator,” said Cape resident and parent Scott DeKuyper. “It’s not a fair comparison.”
Stone responded that he was just trying to point out that a lot of Cape’s administrators are not making a lot of money. Comparing Cape to the Milford School District, Stone also said he is not the highest paid superintendent in Sussex County – raising the ire of some attendees who pointed out that much of the Milford district lies in Kent County.
“A lot of CEOs [chief executive officers] are doing a lot less and making a lot more,” Stone said.
“Were those companies in the red?” asked parent Laura Brittingham.
View board presentation, administrative salary summary, state comparison salaries, and salary breakdown in PDF form.
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