Dr. Mike Zalar

Dr. Mike Zalar, superintendent of the Oregon City Schools District, recently received a $13,256 increase in salary for the 2011-12 fiscal year, according to figures released by the district.

Zalar’s annual salary jumped from $116,965 to $130,221 after the school board approved an increase in administrator salaries at a meeting in August.

Administrators who also got raises include:
• Jane Fruth, treasurer, $97,010 to $103,343;

• Dean Sandwisch, assistant superintendent, $101,348 to $103,975;

• Dawn Henry, social services supervisor, $101,047 to $105,402;

• Lu Lane, director of curriculum, $98,031 to $100,654;

• Jeff Thompson, Clay High School principal, $103,582 to $104,492;

• Jim Jurski, assistant principal at Clay High School, $87,861 to $91,431;

• Tim Holcombe, Fassett School principal, $102,195 to $103,098;

• Rebecca Bihn, Eisenhower Middle School principal, $93,590 to $96,098;

• Amy Molnar, Coy Elementary principal, $98,176 to $98,452;

• Jennifer Conkle, Starr Elementary principal, $97,321 to $97,601;

• Mike Donnelly, athletic director, $69,266 to $72,687.

Zalar said the pay raises are the result of administrative restructuring in the district.

“There has been a great deal of internal movement in administrative positions since I became superintendent,” said Zalar, who was hired in 2008. “I reassigned all of our principals to different buildings early on in my tenure as superintendent. The idea was to try to take advantage of the opportunity to get the right people in the right position based on their administrative strengths. Some of the principals stayed at the same building level, some did not.”

He noted, for instance, he moved one of the middle school principals to the high school and moved another middle school principal to an elementary school. He also said he had restructured the classified supervision administration by moving the transportation supervisor to the cafeteria supervisor’s position due to a retirement.

“Each of these positions is compensated differently depending upon various variables such as building size, after school activities, length of contract and many other factors,” he said.

“Given all of the movement and restructuring of administrative positions, it was necessary to update the administrative salary schedule to accurately reflect the new administrative structure,” he said.

Also, the board and teacher’s union had recently agreed to a new three year contract at the end of July, he noted.

“With the new school year ready to begin in August, and the new administrative contracts set to begin in August as well, it was determined that it was a good time to revise the entire schedule. The board of education wanted to treat all employee groups fairly. Administrators have shared equally in all previous salary and benefit concessions negotiated with the certified and classified staff. Administrators contribute the same percentage to their health care. Administrators have had their salaries frozen at the same level as all other employees. Adjustments in the revised administrative salary schedule were made to account fairly for the roles and responsibilities of each position.”

Zalar said he has assumed duties previously completed by the assistant superintendent and other district administrators.

“District administrators have led the way with budget reductions. In 2006-2007, we had 32 administrators. Today, there are only 23 administrators. This is an administrative staff reduction of nearly 30 percent,” said Zalar. “The work load has been spread across the district and staff members have been required to perform additional duties.”

Adjustments in the administrative salary schedule were made to be consistent with the step increases teachers will receive over the next three years, said Zalar.

Zalar said his pay raise was only increased to what previous superintendent, John Hall, was earning before he left the district four years ago. At that time, Zalar had volunteered to take only one dollar more than his previous salary as principal at Clay High School. A superintendent salary comparison was conducted using information obtained from the Ohio Department of Education and the Buckeye Association of School Administrators.

“It showed that the salary for the Oregon superintendent position was significantly lower than surrounding districts and other school districts in the district’s athletic conference. The board wanted to make an adjustment that would bring the salary for the position back in line and be competitive with similar districts in the area,” said Zalar.

Dave Shafer, president of the Oregon City Federation of Teachers, said the board should not have approved pay raises for administrators, especially after he helped negotiate concessions in salaries and benefits for teachers in July that saved the district $3 million.

“My members have communicated to me that they do not think that it’s fair,” he said. “It’s not about whether or not administrators deserve it. I’m not saying they don’t deserve it. I just think that given the economic climate that we live in, it may not have been a wise decision,” said Shafer.

The district has lost 50 teachers in the last five years.

“We’re all doing more work.  Teachers have bigger class sizes because there are fewer teachers,” said Shafer.

The Press asked for comments from three candidates vying for two seats on the school board in November.

“This is one of the reasons why I decided to run again,” said Jeff Ziviski, who was on the board four years ago.  “Decisions like this by the school board and the administration just further distances the relationship between the community and the taxpayers at a time when everyone in the community, including employees of the district, are doing what they can to help out and take cuts. Parents have to drive their kids to Clay High School now because the board cut busing for high school students. Everyone in the community has taken it upon themselves to help out. For the school board to give administrators a raise is one of the reasons the district is in the position it is in. It furthers the gap between the school board and the community. There’s no trust,” said Ziviski.

Candidate P.J. Kapfhammer agreed.

“We’re always hearing about shared sacrifice from the school board. They closed Wynn school, cut teacher positions, and eliminated busing for high school students. Then they give administrators a raise. That’s not shared sacrifice,” said Kapfhammer.

Candidate Earl John Gilliland, Jr., said administrators should get paid the same rate as administrators in school districts of comparable size.

“We always need to be aware of what the going rate is for administrators. We always want to keep our pay for our administrators comparable to other school districts in similar situations,” he said. “I don’t think we are in a financial position where our people can be out in front, making the most. But in order to retain good administrators, we have to have an equitable pay scale.

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