So it’s down to two people to replace Stan Mack as the RSD superintendent; Dr. Aldo Sicoli and Carlton Jenkins. What the district is not telling you is what it cost simply to replace Mr. Mack with one of the two finalists. Consider the fact that Mr. Mack has a annual salary of $169,753. Despite announcing his pending retirement seven months in advance last October, the district will have to pay him half of his yearly salary or $84,876. He also gets pay out of his unused annual leave time. The most he can collect on is a mere 200 days! That means Mack can collect as much as another $130,000!
In addition, he will receive health care benefits for the next SIX years at the cost of somewhere around $20,000! That means Stan Mack’s “retirement” will cost District 281 taxpayers as much as $235,000! And, of course, we will have to give a new superintendent a contract. What will that cost? If it another contract like Mack’s, get ready for another three-year $500,000 payout not including health care costs and paid days off! Speaking of days off, don’t forget Mr. Mack got fifty paid days off and twelve paid holidays. And it cost the District only $27,000 to hire a search firm to find another superintendent. We have to hire somebody to hire somebody! So the total package to have Mr. Mack retire and hire and pay a new boss could cost as much as $761,000. Talk about over the top! Way to use our money well, school board.
281 Exposed 
April 6, 2009 at 4:10 am |
Seems like a lot, especially the severance package and days off. Luckily we only had to pay this once in 9 years. So are you still happy he is leaving the district or should we have tried harder to keep him? Thereby avoiding these costs.
Some thoughts: Is RAS compensating the Spdt too well relative to Hopkins, Wayzata, Minnetonka, Anoka Henn, Osseo, etc ? Or is this just what it costs ? If we pay on the low end and get someone who lands RAS in legal trouble, will that cost even more ?
What do you think the details of the new contract should be? Thoughts ?
April 7, 2009 at 2:58 am |
Thank you for your comment. 281 exposed is not unhappy to see Stan Mack retire in any way shape or form. As far as what we would like to see in a new contract, 281 exposed would like to see less vacation time to say the least. Fifty paid days off is ten weeks of paid vacation which nobody in the private sector gets. And personally I’m hard pressed to think of twelve holidays. Perhaps the poor superintendent can live with seven or eight weeksof vacation and eight or ten holidays. The severance package is part of a Minnesota statue but payment for unused days off is not. Also District 281 provided life insurance for Mr. Mack for THREE TIMES his salary! That’s also a bit over the top! Considering the economic times, reducing those things would be nice. We would also like to see a more incentive-based contract. Perhaps a bonus for good cost-cutting or efficency ideas that prove to be successful. Stan Mack got a bonus of $8,000 last July right after it was revealed that only three schools passed the AYP tests. How he got a bonus of that level is still head-scratching. As far as what we pay versus other districts, 281 exposed is currently trying to get that information. Stan Mack’s contract is alone is ten pages long so we will report back in a few days with a summary of that information. The bottom line is that this District has promised over and over to change, to listen to the public, and to be cost-effective. We wait with anticipation!
April 7, 2009 at 3:29 am |
You can thank CARE281 for this one. Stan’s Contract
You are right… Fifty days paid seems quite excessive… 3 times salary life insurance is not that out of the norm, and it is relatively inexpensive. Not sure about the bonus, pretty small percentage wise however it would be interesting to know what it was based on. As discussed before, AYP is pretty tough in some of our schools. We need to look at which boxes were missed. (ie ELL, spec needs, high mobility, etc)
I’m anxious to see what your comparison shows.
April 8, 2009 at 2:34 am |
OK 281 exposed has some information on the superintendents in other districts around here. Stan Mack’s salary is not completely out of wack. We don’t yet have all the details but here is a sample. Brooklyn Center boss Keith Lester makes $143,000 a year with 30 paid days off and 6 holidays. Richfield superintendent Robert Slotterback makes $152,200. In Osseo Susan Heitz gets $194,000 with 35 days off. Perhaps the reason for her increased salary is thta Osseo is the 5th largest district in the state with about 21,000 students. Chace Anderson is the chief in Wayzata and he makes $172,500 with just 26 paid days off but he gets an outrageous 45 so-called “sick days.” We have not been able to confirm whether Mr. Anderson gets compensated for unsued sick time. Mr. Mack is compensated for half his unused time off. Again, we want a good candidate to be the superintendent and we are pleased that 27 people applied but the spending can at least be a little bit less. Also we don’t think many people are aware of whata superintendent is compensated and we want to make contracts public. The AYP does have some flaws in it but the lack of progress is troubling. More troubling is how the school board and Mr. Mack dismiss the results. I;m quite certain that if every school was doing great on the AYP the district would be trying to take the credit. Contrary to popular belief the results are not socio-economic like so many think. The three schools that passed in ISD 281 last year were Robbinsdale Spanich Immersion, Forest Elementary which is a Title 1 school, and Zacharly Lane. That means three out of the four schools in Playmouth failed, where the so-called “rich” are every school in New Hope failed. In addition, only three schools in Osseo passed as well. 281 exposed would like to see the federal government to get out of the education business, unfortunately we have a president and a congress who are going in the opposite direction. The state of Minnesota has the option to withdraw from federal funding and No Child Left Behind.
April 17, 2009 at 9:58 pm |
[…] Mack knows a lot about living excessively. Even though he’s getting a golden parachute draining district coffers, Mack’s actively […]
May 16, 2009 at 8:04 pm |
Slotterback left a trail of lucrative contract buyouts in his wake in Wisconsin. Do the research. He retired from a district near Milwaukee because of health reasons and then miraculously recovered when the dollar signs flashed in Richfield.