By DAN TOMASELLO
NORTH READING — School Committee Chairman Jerry Venezia recently defended $19,536.66 in stipends issued to school administrators.
Caroline Road resident Ed Canney wrote a letter that appeared in the Nov. 13 edition of the Transcript that inquired why the school board decided to allocate the stipends to nine school administrators related to the secondary schools project. He also asked how the stipends were being funded.
Venezia said the questions raised by Canney were fair. He said superintendents have come to the School Committee in the past to request stipends for school administrators for undertaking initiatives that are not included in their respective job descriptions.
“These were stipends were for time spent that was above what was required of them,” said Venezia.
Venezia acknowledged each administrator is paid an annual salary and said people can “make can the argument” they don’t deserve a stipend. However, Venezia said many school administrators have put in a great deal of time in a number of different projects that exceeds the work they do outside of the school day.
“There were days we were working seven days a week on the school building project for several months at a time,” said Venezia.
According to stipends data provided by the school department, school administrators received a total of $19,536 in stipends for the 2014-2015 school year.
Middle School Principal Catherine O’Connell and Buildings and Grounds Supervisor Wayne Hardacker were each paid $3,000 for their work involving the secondary schools project. Assistant Superintendent Dr. Patrick Daly was paid $1,500 for his work on the secondary schools project. High School Principal Anthony J. Loprete was paid $2,125 for the work he has undertaken with the secondary schools project. Retired Superintendent of Schools Kathleen Willis, who left the system Oct. 17, was paid $911.66 for the work she did with the secondary schools project, which was pro-rated.
Additionally, Batchelder School Principal Sean Killeen, Little School Principal Christine Molle and Hood School Principal Glen McKay were each paid $1,500 for the elementary school redistricting project. Superintendent of Schools Jon Bernard said the elementary school redistricting project is in its infancy and said there is no reason for the public to be alarmed at this point in time.
“We don’t know what direction we are going to go in but it’s being done in a prudent way,” said Bernard.
According to school officials, McKay was also paid a $1,500 stipend for mentoring secondary schools special education coordinator Maureen Ryan. O’Connell was paid a $1,500 stipend for mentoring Loprete. Loprete was also paid $1,500 for managing the student activities account.
Venezia said these types of stipends have been paid a number of years. He said it’s important to pay school administrators a fair wage as opposed to simply expecting them to work for free.
“The administrators have worked so closely with us and it is my desire to keep them here,” said Venezia. “We are very fortunate to have them here. If we want to keep them here, we have to compensate them fairly and this is a small way to try and do that.”
School Committee member Mel Webster noted the stipends are included in each school administrators’ contract and the stipends are funded through the school department’s annual budget. While he said the School Committee has the option to not give any stipends, Webster said many of the projects are time consuming and very demanding.
Webster said it’s important to discuss the stipends publicly, which he said was started by Willis and continued by Bernard, in order to keep townspeople informed.
