P'burg
district official to receive area's top
pay
4 percent raise will make Gordon
Pethick highest paid among area superintendents.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005 • By SARAH CASSI
• The Express-Times
PHILLIPSBURG -- School district
Superintendent Gordon Pethick will make more than his peers
in other local districts because the board of education
approved a 4 percent raise for nonunion employees Monday
night.
Pethick's salary increases to $141,440
for the 2005-06 school year, retroactive to July
1.
Bethlehem Area Superintendent Joseph A.
Lewis is closest to Pethick at $137,242. Lewis' district has
15,000 students this year and is the fifth-largest school
district in Pennsylvania.
North Warren Superintendent John Toleno
earns $130,000 in his district of 1,100 students; Easton
Superintendent Dennis Riker earns $129,000 for leading his
district of about 9,000 students. Belvidere Superintendent
Jean Atkin Gool earns $125,000 a year.
Pethick's salary for the 3,500-student
district has increased by almost $6,000 over the past two
years. He earned $130,000 for the 2003-04 school year and
$136,000 for the last school year. He is in the first year
of a new three-year contract that will extend to
2008.
The salary increase also applies to
district administration officials, as well as bus drivers,
lunchroom aides and substitutes. Business Administrator Bill
Poch said the 4 percent figure was recommended by the
personnel committee.
Poch and Assistant Superintendent Jackie
Attinello's salaries increase to $127,920. Pat Cawley,
director of elementary education, and George Chando,
director of secondary education, will earn $114,582 this
school year.
School board President Rod Pianelli said
the increase wasn't much "from my vantage point" and that
the salary hikes ensure supervisors earn more than the
people they supervise.
"Everybody should stay in some kind of
order Obviously a principal should be making less than the
assistant superintendent and so on," Pianelli
said.
Pianelli said while there are concerns
about the district's administrative costs, those costs
encompass more than central office administrators' salaries
and include things like postage and legal fees.
The salary increases have decreased in
scale over the past two years; last year's increase was in
excess of 4 percent and the 2003-04 increase ranged from 5.5
to 8.3 percent.
"I think there's no question the
percentages are coming down across all units. When that will
level off depends on a number of factors" including the
economy, Pethick said.
With most of the contracts approved for
the current school year, district officials will soon begin
to address the 2006-07 teachers union contract.
Pethick said he is waiting for a letter
of intent from the union to begin the negotiation process,
and Poch said district officials plan to meet with union
officials next month.
The teachers union negotiated a 6.75
percent increase for this school year, Poch said, adding
that the union also agreed to an additional hour of
instruction.
Reporter Sarah Cassi can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by
e-mail at scassi@express-times.com.
© 2005 The Express-Times. Used with
permission.
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