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A resolution to audit administrative salaries in Portland Public Schools failed Tuesday night on a 3-3 vote, but supporters are vowing to bring it back after the May 19 election when a new school board would likely approve it.
Board members Tom Koehler, Steve Buel and Bobbie Regan supported the measure. Pam Knowles, Ruth Adkins and Greg Belisle opposed it. Adkins and Belisle aren't running again. Matt Morton, who missed the vote, also isn't running.
Defending big raises among top administrators first reported by WW, Knowles angrily decried the board's attempt to scrutinize central office salaries, which she characterized as meddling. Adkins, who earlier blocked colleagues' efforts to have the issue aired at the school board meeting, said she agreed with Knowles "100 percent."
Regan shot back, calling Knowles' statement a mischaracterization. Regan is up for re-election in May. Opponent Amy Carlsen Kohnstamm also supports an audit. (As do Paul Anthony and José González, running for Morton's seat. Update: González later told WW he supports an audit but would have voted against Tuesday's resolution.)
The back-and-forth produced a lively discussion.
WW's story on salary raises showed principals' salaries have grown by rates in the single digits, while Superintendent Carole Smith has given her closest advisers double-digit percentage increases. The district's justification is that central-office administrators who supervise principals should earn more money. Koehler, who said he thinks principals are underpaid, also said he wasn't sure he agreed with that premise. "I'm not sure that's the right paradigm," he told colleagues.
Buel, doing away with props for the evening, said he supported the audit to promote transparency. He also made a point about principals' salaries, saying the current structure wasn't necessarily good for kids. It caps salaries for elementary-school principals at a level below those for middle-school principals. High-school principals are at the top of the scale.
Buel said that structure encouraged elementary-school principals to switch to higher-paying jobs, even if they're better suited for elementary school. "It creates a structure that I don't necessarily believe is always good for kids," Buel said.
He then said he wanted to discuss that further.
Adkins, who's made no secret of her disdain for Buel, cut him off curtly: "Our professional human resources staff has been working on it."
WWeek 2015