School Board Considers Extending Employment Contracts with Key Administrators at Thursday Meeting, Some Teachers Upset

The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education will consider and likely act on new employment contracts for six current senior administrators of the district, including Superintendent Brian McDonald, at Thursday’s board meeting.

Aside from McDonald, the other administrators that will have new contracts include Associate Superintendent for School Support Services Mercy Santoro, Chief Human Resources Officer Kathleen Sanchez, Chief Academic Officer Shawn Bird, Chief Business Officer Bernadette Riggs and Chief of Facilities Nelson Cayabyab.

The new contracts would include a six percent increase in the salaries of each of these officers to reflect increases that have been given to management employees represented by the Association of Pasadena School Administrators (APSA) over the last six months, but have not been extended to the senior administrators because of their existing contracts, most of which end on June 30, 2017.

Some teachers are upset by the proposal and reportedly intend to protest.

“After everything we had to go through to get our meager 6% raise, several district officials are up for Board approval for 6% for themselves!,” one teacher said in an email Wednesday night. “ To top that off, their salaries are near or well above the $200K, annually. Have you ever even thought of a check that big?”

Also to be included in the new contracts, as proposed, will be a provision that provides for the annual salary to be increased without the need for further Board action, by the same percentage increase in salary granted by the Board to employees that make up the highest percentage of persons represented by APSA, and with the same effective date.

Such increases wouldl be contingent upon a satisfactory performance evaluation of the employee the year before the increase.

For McDonald, the new contract will give him an annual salary of $265,000, a term extension of up to June 30, 2020, and an increase in District annual Tax Sheltered Annuity contribution from $15,000 to $25,000. The contract also carries a new provision that gives him the privilege to apply, at his discretion, for a district loan of up to $150,000 for the purchase of a residence within the district.

McDonald joined PUSD as Chief Academic Officer in October 2011 after an extensive career in the Houston Independent School District in Texas. He was appointed Interim Superintendent in 2014 after Jon Gundry left to become superintendent at the Santa Clara County Office of Education. In December that year, McDonald became Permanent Superintendent.

The proposed employment contracts of the six senior PUSD administrators are accessible for online viewing through the Board of Education’s meeting agenda. To read more, see www.pusd.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=15&event_id=284.