Newspaper Page Text
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Tribune & Georgian
Friday, February 1,2013
Top 25 Salaries For Camden
EMPLOYEE NAME JOB TITLE
School Employees
ANNUAL TRAVEL Paid as of 1/25/13
Will Hardin superintendent
John Tucker CCHS principal
Jonathan Miller director of personnel
James Gibbs director of secondary instruction. .
Mark Stewart director of administrative services
Arthur Van Blarcum assistant superintendent
Dean Slusser director of fine arts
Rebecca Gillette director of elementary instruction
Beverly Strickland director of federal programs
Tawana Tucker director of special education
Sheila Sapp principal
Steve Loden deputy principal
Angela Eason director of finance
Darlene Bruce principal
John Bailey coordinator of technology
Walter Taylor assistant principal
Jeff Herron head football coach
Angela McManigal principal
John Hunter assistant principal
Charles Curry principal
Denise Cato coordinator of special education . .
Heath Heron principal
Deborah Milstead principal
Tom McClendon principal
Geraldine McKendree teacher
$153,347.
$119,758.
$115,038.
$110,982.
$109,789.
$107,654.
$106,189.
$105,972.
$105,972.
$105,972.
$102,154.
$101,044.
. $99,461.
. $98,554.
. $98,106.
. $97,409.
. $96,976.
. $96,091.
. $95,226.
. $91,776.
. $88,700.
. $88,379.
. $88,379.
. $88,176.
. $87,341.
12 $3,102.01
45 $1,223.89
33 $0.00
37 $1,215.09
45 $659.76
39 $682.55
45 $0.00
08 $1,184.37
08 $0.00
08 $0.00
71 $120.93
24 $0.00
17 $0.00
71 $0.00
80 $155.40
50 $0.00
91 $2,341.04
40 $348.82
87 $0.00
18 $102.96
36 $97.39
28 $0.00
29 $0.00
18 $67.97
00 $117.88
Pay
from page 1A
fiscal year 2013, which ends
June 30. The fiscal year 2012
salaries for all employees of
all Georgia boards of educa
tion, including Camden and
Effingham, can be found at
www.open.georgia.gov.
“The state legislature each
year adopts a state teacher
salary scale with which school
systems must comply,” super
intendent Dr. Will Hardin
said, adding the salary
“schedule” prescribes a base
pay for educators and allows
increases for number of years
experience and level of certi
fication.
“The prescribed salary in
creases as experience and for
mal training increase,”
Hardin said.
Because of this, the state
provides additional reim
bursement to school systems
for teacher experience and
certification, Hardin said.
Camden County Schools will
receive a supplement of $17.7
million in fiscal year 2013.
To stay competitive, many
school systems, including
Camden County, offer a local
supplement to teachers’ state-
set salaries. Hardin said that,
due to fiscal constraints, that
amount has been reduced to
5 percent.
The numbers
The top salary in each
school system belongs to its
superintendent. Dr. Will
Hardin currently makes
$153,347 in Camden while
Dr. Randy $hearouse gar
nered $155,288 from Effing
ham in fiscal year 2012.
Hardin was paid $3,102 in
travel funds as of Jan. 25,
while $hearouse’s assigned
travel stipend was $9,761.
The comparisons continue
as follows:
• Camden County High
$chool principal John Tucker
earns $119,758 while the
highest paid principal in Eff
ingham earned $116,426.
• Personnel director
Jonathan Miller makes
$115,038 in Camden. Effing
ham’s personnel and human
resources director made
$114,202.
• Camden County $chools
employs separate directors of
secondary instruction and el
ementary instruction. James
Gibbs and Rebecca Gillette
garner $110,982 and
$105,972 respectively Effin
gham County $chools em
ploys two vocational
supervisors and two instruc
tional supervisors. The voca
tional heads make between
$92,000-$ 111,000 and the in
structional heads make be
tween $101,000 and
$104,000.
• Camden’s director of spe
cial education, Tawana
Tucker, earns $105,972 while
her counterpart in Effingham
earns $104,015.
Personnel changes
Because the bulk of Cam
den County $chools’ costs are
associated with personnel,
enormous reductions in state
and investment revenue over
the last few years have re
sulted in staff reductions,
Hardin said.
“Between 2009 and 2011,
Camden County $chools en
acted a tormenting reduction
in force (RIF) plan to reduce
salary obligations,” he said.
“Consequently, 26 to 28
teachers were not offered
contracts for three consecu
tive years, and class sizes have
grown from an average of 22
students per class to 28 stu
dents per class. The number
of school system employees
decreased from 1,486 in 2008
to 1,211 in the 2013 school
year.”
With so many cuts to jobs
and programs like art and
music, some in Camden
County have accused the
school system of maintaining
exorbitantly high salaries, es
pecially for administrators,
while making cuts to lower-
level teachers and staff mem
bers.
Hardin is aware of such a
perception but said Camden’s
expenditures per pupil for
general administration are
lower than other school dis
tricts in the state.
“I believe everyone cer
tainly has a right to their
opinion,” he said. “Camden
County $chools spent
$143.08 per pupil on expen
ditures tracked by the Geor
gia Department of Education
labeled ‘general administra
tion.’ The average school sys
tem in Georgia spent $474.41
per pupil. Only four school
systems of the 190 in Georgia
spent less per pupil on gen
eral administration than
Camden County.”
Hardin also addressed the
concerns of those who feel el
ementary teachers often pur
sue advanced degrees in order
to cash in on the salary in
creases offered by the state’s
schedule. Online salary
records for Camden County
$chools in fiscal year 2012
show a sixth-grade teacher
earned $74,767; a ninth-
grade teacher earned
$76,192; a second-grade
teacher earned $73,866; and
two seventh-grade teachers
earned about $73,000.
“I believe teachers who ex
pend the time and effort to
return to school to increase
their qualifications through
advanced degrees do so for
two reasons: to become bet
ter at their profession and to
increase opportunities for ca
reer advancement,” Hardin
said, equating such decisions
to public safety officers or
military personnel who pur
sue advanced training. “To
disparage a teacher for taking
the initiative to advance pro
fessionally and improve their
financial standing because of
the structure for compensa
tion is irrational. There are
few among us who would not
do exactly the same thing.”
Serve
from page 1A
we will continue to deploy the
finest naval force in the
world.”
The U.$. Navy lifted a sim
ilar ban in April 2010 that al
lowed women to serve aboard
ballistic and guided missile
subs, such as those at Kings
Bay Naval $ubmarine Base,
but last week’s decision will
now allow women to serve on
Virginia-class attack sub
marines as well. Women will
begin reporting for these
types of duties in fiscal year
2015.
Kings Bay public affairs of
ficer $cott Bassett said that fe
male Marines are standing
watch as normal with their
male counterparts and that
because the base doesn’t have
attack missiles, no real
changes to local operations
have taken place concerning
female sailors serving their
duties at Kings Bay
“We’ve been doing it all
along,” he said.
Mabus said that Panetta’s
decision last week goes hand
in hand with the Navy’s inte
gration efforts a few years ago.
“I am pleased the Navy has
completed an initiative I an
nounced several months ago
to open up one of the few
areas not currently available
to women, that of service on
Virginia-class submarines,” he
said. “Three years ago we an
nounced a policy change al
lowing women to serve in
guided-missile attack and bal
listic missile submarines and
this is a planned continuation
of that effort.”
The abolished ban will also
open up thousands of infantry
positions to women, provided
that they meet the appropri
ate qualifications. According
to CNN, there are more than
200,000 women on active
duty, which is about 15 per
cent of the military’s total
numbers that near 1.4 million.
There are about 53,000
women in the Navy and about
14,000 women Marines.
Mabus said the Marine
Corps already opened up op
portunities to women in roles
they were previously banned
Money
from page 1A
website.
“Interest income is not a
large source of revenue for the
district but as a not-for-profit
entity, interest income is used
to support the instructional
and operational needs for the
district,” Eason said. “There
fore, being able to maximize
the interest earnings is impor
tant to the district. $chool sys
tems have three sources of
revenue: state, federal and
local. The state revenue has
declined 41 percent since
2008. A decline in any of these
three areas impacts the dis
trict.”
Interest rates have plum
meted in the last six years.
In December 2006, the
school system’s investments
earned 5.3163 percent.
A year later, the rate had
fallen to 4.5265 percent.
By December 2008, three
percentage points had been
lost to put the interest rate at
1.5 percent.
December 2009 showed
0.2411 percent interest.
The December 2010 rate
was close to that of two years
later, 0.1805 percent.
At the lowest, investments
earned 0.0891 percent inter
est in December 2011.
The City of Woodbine had
also invested through Georgia
Fund 1 in June 1997 when the
fund paid 5.49 percent inter
est. In $eptember 2012, city
council authorized transfer
ring all of the approximately
$16,000 from the fund be
cause the money could earn
comparable interest at a Cam
den County bank.
“It was money left over
from a road tax account that
we had received and not used.
We didn’t need it at the time,”
city administrator $andy
Rayson said. It was a little
better than what everybody
else was paying at the time.”
Now the fund could offer
Woodbine 0.18 percent, she
said.
Camden County receives
less income from its invest
ments, too.
In fiscal year 2006, the
county earned $228,895 from
interest in its general fund.
The money contributed 1.1
percent of the total general
fund revenue. General fund
investment income rose in
2007 to $283,410, then begin
declining: $207,557 in fiscal
year 2008, $119,643 in 2009
and $86,243 in 2010. It in
creased in 2011 to $123,289
before dropping again in 2012
to $69,936 in the general
fund.
“The feds keep the interest
borrowing rates to banks at 0
percent but banks are only of
fering between 0.25 percent
and 0.3 percent mostly due to
the additional collateral they
must have for any county dol
lars in their bank,” Camden
County finance director Mike
Fender said. “If they begin
loaning money on a regular
basis again, it will cause inter
est rates to increase and be
better for investment because
they will need our money”
The City of Kingsland also
saw drops from $241,711 in
fiscal year 2008 for the
water/sewer fund, $90,000
was budgeted for fiscal year
2009, $125,000 was budgeted
for fiscal year 2010. The bud
geted number fell to $25,000
for fiscal year 2013.
In Kingsland’s general fund,
the investment income was
$89,836 in fiscal year 2008,
budgeted at $25,000 in fiscal
year 2009 and budgeted at
$15,000 in fiscal year 2010.
Overall, the city received
$333,006 for fiscal year 2008
from its investments,
$115,800 budgeted for fiscal
year 2009, $140,500 for fiscal
year 2010 and received
$33,358 in fiscal year 2011.
from such as artillery, armor,
low altitude air defense and
combat engineer battalions.
“The Marines are dedicated
to maintaining the highest
levels of combat readiness and
capitalizing upon every op
portunity to enhance our war
fighting capabilities and the
contributions of every Ma-
rine-it’s simply the right thing
to do.”
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