That's quite a bill. But that's not all.
Lathan is being paid $198,000 plus benefits, which includes a $10,000 performance bonus that can be awarded, 25 vacation days yearly, the premiums for group family medical insurance, including dental and vision insurance, legal defense if she's sued, $7,403 in a tax deferred annuity, a $350,000 term life insurance policy vested in the superintendent when her contract ends, $2,000 for a lawyer to advise her on the contract itself and 30 additional sick days beyond the school's standard rules.
If she is discharged without cause, she gets $100,000. The contract runs until June 30, 2013, but salary can be adjusted upward annually.
So how well is this pricey new leader in Peoria managing the schools, as the school year begins?According to teachers at the District 150 Watch Group, there are a few problems.
No textbooks or computers. A teacher at Peoria High reported that books she needs are still in storage at the now closed Woodruff High School. Another said "half the kids bring a pencil to tech" class, since the computers aren't working. Teachers had to hook up their own computers, as no one was available to help them.
Transportation mix-ups. Buses are running late and changing routes without notifying parents.
Missing teachers. A new $12,000 automated system for finding substitute teachers when regular teachers call in sick has a major glitch: it doesn't notify the principals when substitutes are being sent to their schools. And it may not supply all the substitutes needed. There have been teacher shortages and surprised principals.
Big classes: Principals are struggling to equalize class sizes.
No teacher guidance. Many teachers have been assigned to teach grades they have never taught before and are struggling to adjust. There are no curriculum guides for some, and administrators have declined to help them. So what do they teach? They are winging it, a teacher reported.
Dress code screw ups. At Richwoods High School, a former Woodruff High School student, who would have been a cheerleader there, spent her first day at Richwoods in the auditorium after a dean told her the camisole she was wearing under a blouse was too revealing.
Only the dean didn't exactly put it that way. Instead she told the girl that her "breasts were too big" for her outfit. Other girls dressed this way, with smaller breasts, were allowed to join their classes after sitting for a couple of hours in the auditorium. One girl's dad, a lawyer, came to school and raised hell to get his daughter back into her classes. Other parents had no transportation or could not leave work.In all, up to 200 students may have wasted several hours of their first day at school sitting around in the auditorium instead of attending classes.
Think this can't have happened in 2010? Wrong. The story, including the quotes about the breasts, has been spread among some teachers, and the girl herself told it to someone else who attended the Watch Group meeting.Naturally she was humiliated, and now wants to drop out of her new high school.
How stupid can school officials be, not to stock a supply of t-shirts for students dressed inappropriately, until they learn the rules! That's what happened at Peoria High, with no reported problems there.
Charter School. Several students reportedly already have dropped out of the new charter school, which raises an interesting question: who gets the state aid money for charter school dropouts, the charter school or District 150?School wide meeting. Taxpayers spent about $1,000 to transport teachers and staff to the all-school meeting at the Peoria Civic Center, then over $20,000 to feed them breakfast there. Methodist Medical Center and Proctor Hospital reportedly picked up some of this cost, which raises questions of its own regarding the high cost of medical care in Peoria which includes paying for such things.
Glen Oak School. There's only one exit in use at the new Glen Oak School, for 800 students. It takes many minutes just to get them through the door when the school day ends. Each classroom has a door leading outside, but there's no landscaping yet, so the doors cannot be used. The last lunch period doesn't begin until 1:15 p.m., so students are really hungry by then. And one day recently, water to the school was cut off, so students were bussed to another school throughout the day to use the restrooms. Porta-potties might have been a better idea?
Otherwise, things are going great. At least for the high paid administrators.
-- Elaine Hopkins
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