OSWEGO, NY – The Oswego City School District is already examining its options regarding finding a replacement for departed business manager Pete Colucci. Now, they have another administrative position to fill.
At a brief special meeting Tuesday night, the board of education unanimously (board president John Dunsmoor was absent) accepted the resignation of Amy DiVita as Director of Special Programs, effective Aug. 25.
“I accept this with regret and tremendous appreciation,” said board member Jim Tschudy.
“It has been a pleasure working with Amy. She always advocates for students; sometimes under very difficult and trying circumstances,” added Bill Crist, superintendent. “She was a person who paid attention to detail. We’ll miss her for that and wish her well.”
The board also approved some other personnel items in preparation for the upcoming new school year.
Positions approved included head coaches for girls’ Varsity and JV tennis, boys’ JV volleyball and girls’ modified swim as well as a science teacher, an account clerk/typist, a motor vehicle operator, two substitute teachers/tutors and a custodian.
All of the resolutions passed unanimously with the exception of the custodian.
Board member Fran Hoefer took exception with the position’s $48,248 salary.
“Custodians are valuable and are wonderful people. But, we’re paying $70,000 or more (with benefits) for this man to be a custodian,” Hoefer said. “My point is that if we got to pay that kind of money for custodians that come up through the system, we gotta get out of the system, start doing something that’s efficient. That’s ridiculous to pay that kind of wage for that job. I don’t care if you’re the king of England; you don’t get paid $50,000 to be a custodian.”
The board also approved several vacancy notice postings for the 2011/12 school year.
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Hoefer is right! You have starting teachers that don’t make that amount of money. It’s time we really started looking at what these people (not just custodians) make. The food service manager makes that or more as well and many of them don’t have direct contact with students 8 hours a day. Let’s be realistic!
How about hiring a Director of Special Programs that will focus on the gifted and talented students as well. Those students get set aside because they’ll make it no matter what and everyone is so worried about being evaluated on scores. Make a difference for everyone, not just the students who are below grade level.
My thought is that instead of looking as Ms. Divita’s resignation as an opportunity to fill a position, the school board needs to look at it as an opportunity to reduce cost. Oswego is flush with administrative staff.
I do believe a director of special programs is a very important administrative position. However, there are other positions that are not as important. School administrators are the highest priced, yet provide the least value as they have no direct interaction with children. This sort of oxymoron should end! It is time to consolidate administrative jobs. The duties of special programs director are important, and Ms. Divita was a talented staffmember. However, now that she is gone, it is time to redistribute her duties among other members of the staff. There is a teacher who gets paid a bonus $5000 to be “Special Education Team Leader.” If we are paying these teachers such large bonuses, there should be considerable responsibilities associated with it. Have the special ed team leader take on some added duties, as the head of their group. It is time to reconsider things in public education. Top-heaviness is not a trait that the taxpayers appreciate.