Pottsgrove Gives 2% Raises to 19 Administrators

Without discussion or revealing the contents of the package prior to voting, the Pottsgrove School Board approved 2 percent raises for 19 mid-level administrators and building principals Tuesday night.

In fact, it was not even it's own vote, but was bundled together with several other personnel items on a motion by Board Vice President Al Leach.

The agenda, which listed numerous other voting items in detail, including the cost to taxpayers, identified the pay raises only as "approval of ACT 93 Salaries per the ACT 93 Administrative Compensation Plan."

No amounts were listed.

After the meeting, Assistant Superintendent Robert Harney provided the press with a pre-prepared list of the of the administrators, their positions and their new salaries.

He indicated all of them received 2 percent raises.

Business Manager David Nester said, after the meeting, that the cost of the raises to the budget totals is $59,648, a figure he did not have available at the meeting.

However, before calculating the figure at the request of the media, he nevertheless assured us they are within the current budget.

The raises became effective on Dec. 1.

Added together, the salaries of those 19 employees add up to $2,153,738.86.

The largest salary goes to high school principal William Ziegler, whose annual salary will rise to $150,904.84 as a result of the vote. He is followed by Daniel Vorhis, director of education, at $141,459.03.

The lowest salary, $60,077.53, belongs to custodial supervisor Perry Rosado. Rosado, Lower Pottsgrove Elementary Assistant Principal James Dargan ($92,920), High School Dean of Students Todd VanHorn ($91,267) and Athletic Director Steve Anspach ($87,567) are the only four of the 19 on the list earning less than $100,000.

In a discussion on Twitter, Leach took issue with this blogger's observations about a lack of transparency and defended keeping the salary information veiled before the vote.

He said individual salary information is available for anyone who asks for it.

"Personnel is for executive session. And although I TOTALLY disagree a public school employee should have their PERSONAL salary displayed for the public to discuss, it is avail at request," he Tweeted in response to complaints from this blogger about the information not being available for the public to comment to the board before the vote makes it moot.

In items voted on prior to the administrator salaries, the salaries and pay rates of a new teacher, kindergarten assistant, support staff substitute, part-time secretary, duty aide and even supplemental payments for staff taking on other duties were all published in the exact same agenda.

Perhaps Mr. Leach's concern about "PERSONAL salary" being "displayed for the public to discuss" does not extend to those making less than $100,000 a year in the Pottsgrove School District.

Leach also noted that employee's "reviews" are appropriately discussed in closed-door executive session. "I wouldn’t want to discuss individual’s reviews publicly," he Tweeted.

Also voted on prior to the raises for administrators were the 2019-202 goals for Superintendent William Shirk. Those goals were made publicly available ahead of time by being attached to the agenda and were reviewed by Shirk himself before the board vote.

In other matters, the board:

• Unanimously approved the aforementioned $215,000 cost of replacing six burners on boilers in three school buildings;
• Unanimously approved spending another $3,750 for an additional piece of software needed to effectively run the new bus GPS tracking system;
• And unanimously approved four new high school courses: calculus 3, robotics engineering, "music uncharted," and "design thinking and prototype creation."

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

2% Raises for 19 Pottsgrove Administrators