3 Top Pottsgrove Administrators Get 2% Raises

Pottsgrove Schools Superintendent William Shirk

The three top administrators in the Pottsgrove School District all received 2 percent raises Tuesday
night.

The new salaries of Superintendent William Shirk, Assistant Superintendent Robert Harney and Business Manager Davids Nester were all approved Tuesday night by the board without any public comment.

As a result, Shirk will earn $188,695 in the 2019-2020 school year, up from $184,074.

Robert Harney, assistant superintendent

Shirk, who had served as the district's assistant superintendent since 2013, was promoted in January of 2017 at a salary of $178,000.

For five months, he had served as acting superintendent in the wake of the departure of his predecessor, Shellie Feola.

Harney, who was hired in November of 2017 at a salary of $150,000, will be paid $156,071 in the coming school year, up from $152,250.

This is the final year of Shirk and Harney's contracts Harney said.

Nester, who has worked for the district for decades, has an "open ended contract," meaning it is automatically renewed each year unless the board takes action.

His salary for the 2019-2020 school year will be $176,191, up from $171,877.

David Nester, business manager

Last year, all three received 1.5 percent raises.

Harney said all three have goals set for them every year by the school board and their raises are based, in part on their performance in achieving those goals.

In February, the school board unanimously adopted a new three-year agreement with lower level administrators as well.

The administrators, 21 building and mid-level supervisors, are known collectively as the Act 93 employees for the Pennsylvania law that governs the manner in which they "meet and discuss" with the school board to negotiate employment conditions.

This group is different from the teachers' union, which is protected and operates under federal and state labor laws and are allowed to strike in Pennsylvania. Technically, the Act 93 employees are not negotiating a union contract.

That contract set up a "market place" of eight school districts to help determine "target salaries."

The Act 93 agreement does not govern higher level employees, like the superintendent, assistant superintendent or business manager, each of whom has an individual contract with the school district.

In January, the school board adopted a three-year early bird contract with the teachers union, the Pottsgrove Education Association. That contract re-structured the salary sclaes to direct more money into the newer teachers, making exact figures varied.

However, Harney said at the time the budget impact would add about 3.3 percent to the payroll each year of the contract.

In June, the school board adopted a $68 million budget that raised property taxes by 0.7 percent.

Get on the Bus

The board also further discussed the proposal to install GPS systems on all 56 Pottsgrove buses, which are owned by the district but operated and managed by CMD Services bus company, the same company that operates the Pottstown Area Rapid Transit buses.

The board did not vote, although one is planned at the first meeting in September.

Business Manager David Nester told the board he had knocked about $2,000 off the installation price, bringing the price tag for the entire project to about $15,000.

He said Pottsgrove is one of the last districts in the county to install the system, and that is a basic
system that does not permit parents to access data about the location of school buses in real time as the Boyertown system does.

However, having the system in place will likely allow Pottsgrove to maximize its transportation subsidy from Pennsylvania, which clocks in at just over $1 million. Of that subsidy, $760,000 was related to mileage.

The board also adopted a new contract with CMD for services.

There was no overall cost associated with the contract, but the agenda did not the management fee of $149,909 represents an increase of 4.55 percent.

Hourly driver rates are up 2.4 and 2.5 percent under the new contract, depending on the vehicle being driven. It also contains a 3.6 percent increase in the hourly labor rate.

According to information posted in the agenda, "CMD has worked with the District to keep costs down for years. As a result, Pottsgrove's transportation costs are among the lowest in the area."

And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Top 3 Pottsgrove Administrators Get 2% Raises