School Board Scullery

So, Utah state law says that school boards may set their own salaries. In response to this, last year the Jordan School Board gave themselves a 300 per cent raise, going from $3000 a year to $12000 a year! And I want to know, where is the justice in that? One of the legislators who voted in favor of allowing school boards to set their own salaries said (paraphrasing) that if we can't trust a school board to be honest in setting their salary, who could we trust? Apparently, this guy never heard of the phrase, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Now, for those of you who may not know, the Jordan School District split last year. This is some of the most ridiculous stuff I've ever heard of! For years and years, people on the west-side were paying taxes and having those taxes support the growth in schools happening on the east-side. But now, all of the growth in schools is happening on the west-side, and the east-side residents don't want their taxes going to west-side development. So the east-side of the valley decided that they wanted to split off from the district. A change like that needs to go to a public vote. Only, Utah state law says that only the people wanting to split off get to vote on a district split. DUH! So, of course the split passed, even though half of the district didn't get a say in it.

So, now we have 3 Jordan School Boards--the original board, the west-side board, and the east-side board. As soon as the district split becomes official in 2009, the original board will dissolve. But until then, $12000 per year is being paid to each of the board members of THREE SCHOOL BOARDS! And on top of that, a few members of the original board are working with both the original board and one of the new developing boards, so they are being paid DOUBLE (that's $24000 for those folks)! And what blows my mind is that all of this ridiculousness is perfectly legal.

My thoughts are: that money could be used for so many other better things! Instead of paying 3 boards (and a few of the members twice) due to a split that never should have happened in the first place, that money could be paying for programs for students or repairs in school buildings or getting more technology in the classrooms, etc. etc. etc.

And as for those folks accepting double salaries: they say that they spend SOOO much time sitting in meetings and that they deserve to be compensated for their time. Yeah, well, NEWS FLASH! Anyone working in, near, or around education is called a PUBLIC SERVANT. We all put in time that we don't get compensated for. I'm 5 weeks into the new school year, and during the past weeks, I've been putting in anywhere from 50-70 hours a week for my kids. The district requires that I get to school at 7:00am and stay until 3:00pm, but I get to school at 6:30am and stay, usually, until 6:00pm. At that point, I take my work home with me and finish it while watching TVLand. And nobody's offering me a 300 per cent raise!

You know, perhaps if school board members remembered that they were public servants, and understood exactly what that entails, we could trust them to set their own salaries. But until then, maybe school boards should be treated like the rest of us education workers--overworked and underpaid!