Amelia Lantz told the school board last week that a contract amendment approved on Aug. 25 -- well after the budget vote -- giving six additional paid vacation days to five district administrators is equivalent to a raise in that the district will not receive services from those employees on those six days.

The school board on Aug. 25 approved an amendment to the contracts of Superintendent Diane Scricca, Deputy Superintendent Nancy Carney, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Michael Ivanoff, Assistant Superintendent for Personnel and Community Services Joe Ogeka and Plant Facilities Administrator Mark Finnerty giving each of them six additional holiday or recess days.

Superintendent Diane Scricca had publicly stated before May's budget vote that the district's central administrators had agreed to no salary increase for the 2009-10 school year. The building principals also took no base salary increase, although they received step increases based on experience and credentials.

The moves came at a time when the administration was trying to convince the unions representing district teachers and other employees to do likewise as a means of avoiding layoffs, something the unions did not agree to.

"After all the heat and ridicule the teachers, the teachers assistants and the Civil Service Employees Association took this past year for supposedly not wanting to negotiate a giveback as the [Riverhead] Administrators Association did, those same district office administrators took back and added to the 2.5 percent raise that they claimed to have refused," said Ms. Lantz, who ran unsuccessfully for a school board seat in May.

"Those six days, collectively 30 days, not only amount to a loss of services to the district, but as a community, we voted to pass the $105 million budget last May based on a designated number of work days from the district office," she said.

The additional paid vacation days are equivalent to a 2.63 percent raise for each of the administrators, she said.

"That's not accurate," Dr. Scricca responded at the Tuesday hearing. "There are six additional days off, but our salaries are the same as last year. We receive no additional money and this is not in lieu of money. We asked for additional days off, for example, during the Christmas break."

She said that while she wouldn't be working on these days, the vacation days can't be accumulated and they can't be traded in for money.

"So it's not equal to 2.5 percent, because there's no increase in the moneys that we are getting in our paycheck, nor can we change it into money," Dr. Scricca said, "I agree if that was the case, that would be deceitful, and that was not our wish to do."

But Ms. Lantz said the district is still losing 30 days of service, and officials never mentioned anything before the budget vote about administrators getting additional vacation days in exchange for taking no salary increase.

Dr. Scricca noted that the Tuesday school board meeting, which lasted until 11:30 p.m., probably meant a 15-hour workday for administrators.

"You just got one day back," she said. "We worked two days today."

tgannon@timesreview.com

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: 11/5/2009
Root out Corruption

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