TRAVERSE CITY -- School board members in Traverse City want to wait before cutting central administrators' salaries for two years, concerned that it would create an unsettling precedent.
A decision on whether to cut six administrators' salaries by 5 percent in each of 2010-11 and 2011-12 -- after raising them by 2 percent this year -- now will come in three weeks when the board revisits the issue.
TCAPS administration last week formally proposed cuts that would affect Associate Superintendent Jayne Mohr; Paul Soma, chief financial officer; Christine Davis, executive director of human resources; Jame McCall, executive director of elementary and special education; Todd Neibauer, technology director; and Alison Arnold, director of marketing, communications and volunteer services.
Their base salaries last year ranged from $75,906 for Arnold, to $106,497 for Mohr.
Board members this week said they appreciated the administrators' offer but worried that it could become a bargaining tool for other district employees.
A district committee proposing budget cuts for next year will recommend a list to the board in December. Salary freezes or cutbacks for all employees are among the initial suggestions.
Board member Marjie Rich said she wanted to compare that list with the administration's proposal to prevent one from pre-empting the other.
"I don't know what's going to happen," she said. "We need to keep our options open."
Not everyone agreed.
Postponing action is "delaying the inevitable," board member Dave Barr said.
Administrators estimated the district could face a deficit between $6 million and $12 million next year.
The cuts would save about $55,000, Superintendent Jim Feil said.
Feil's contract expires in June and will have to be renegotiated with the board. He did not take a salary increase this year and earns $159,832.
He said he would accept a cut deeper than 5 percent if the board renews his contract.
Board member Gary Appel asked that the board's committees review the proposal because its impact could be tempered by first raising pay.
Several district employee unions received a 2 percent raise this year in recent negotiated contracts, including teachers and building principals.
"It's probably true that what is being proposed here is a pattern that will be extended to other groups or proposed to other groups in the future," board President Fred Tank said by conference call.
He asked Feil whether the district could require employees instead to take unpaid days, a move being done in the private sector.
"Our salaries are up there because of how profitable the state has been," Feil responded. "I don't know how realistic it is to think about maintaining that."
