On the Trail of Higher Administrator Salaries

The blue dotted line shows the planned path of the Pottsgrove Trail through Pottsgrove High School and Brookside Family Restaurant property.

The Pottsgrove School Board pondered a proposal to route a regional trail through the high school property.

And it gave two of its top administrators raises of two and three percent respectively. But that happened in one giant unanimous vote, which also gave raises of mostly 2.5 percent to 11 other employees.

So Superintendent William Shirk's salary, as of Sept. 1, will be $181,327.82, which Business Manager David Nester said is a two percent raise.

Nester will see a 3 percent raise to an annual salary of $169,331.58.

But the board didn't talk about that.

Instead it talked mostly about the presentation by Michael Lane, the regional recreation director, who outlined the plan for five major regional trails, and then specifically outlined plans for the Pottsgrove Trail.

He brought along Lower Pottsgrove Manager Ed Wagner, and Upper Pottsgrove Commissioner Herb Miller, both of whom endorsed the idea and answered questions from the school board.

Lane said plans for the trail's route through the Turnberry Farms development is already underway and the idea is for the trail to link the high school with Hollenbach Park, where Pottsgrove athletes practice and play.

Miller even said with the network now in place, the high school cross country team could run from the high school to the park at Prout Farm and back to the school, a 10-mile round trip -- almost entirely on the trails.

The board, after a few questions, seemed favorable to the idea and Lane said he would not need a decision from them until next year, and in the meantime, he would provide more information as it becomes available.

Now, if you weren't washed away by last night's storm, here are the Tweets from the meeting.