Johnson's severance nearly a year's pay

Pioneer Press ^ | Aug 18, 2003 | John Welsh

[Lijahsbubbe]

Minneapolis School Superintendent Carol Johnson will get nearly a year's salary as a severance package when she leaves Minnesota next month for her new job as Memphis superintendent.

The package highlights the sometimes lucrative severance deals superintendents receive when they leave districts. State Auditor Pat Awada is already conducting a statewide survey of districts on the issue.

Assuming Johnson takes no vacation or sick days before her resignation date of Sept. 30, she will receive $155,000 in compensation — $75,000 in unused sick and vacation days and $80,000 in a payment to a retirement annuity. The district released those figures Monday.

Johnson, who is paid $160,000 a year, declined to be interviewed for this story.

"Even though this is less than some severance superintendents have received, it's still a lot of money for quitting a public job,'' said Deputy State Auditor Carla Heyl.

Minneapolis School Board Chairwoman Sharon Henry-Blythe defended the package, saying it reflected the value the district associated with Johnson.

"This is standard and not out of the ordinary as far as superintendent contracts,'' she said. "It's not unusual.''

Johnson has worked for the Minneapolis district for 32 years, including the past six years as superintendent. A Tennessee native, she announced last month that she would take the Memphis superintendent's job.

When Johnson was courted in 2001 by another Tennessee district — Nashville — she was offered a $30,000 raise by the school board. But for the past two years, she has given back that money. She also gave back a $10,000 performance bonus in 2001.

Critics of school districts say the severance packages given to superintendents are too generous and reward changing jobs rather than job performance. But school administrators say such contracts reflect the fact that superintendents often switch districts and sometimes states, and often can't take advantage of state or district retirement plans.

Awada announced her investigation after Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan Superintendent John Haro received a severance package of $237,000 earlier this year when he took a job in Georgia.

Minnesota Education League Executive Director Warren Grantham said districts too often enter into "one-sided'' contracts with superintendents, especially when a superintendent faces no penalty for breaking the contract and leaving the district early.

"It's unconscionable. It's a golden parachute and school districts should not be in the business of giving golden parachutes,'' Grantham said. "She was very gracious to return the raise. She should return this golden parachute.''

MINNEAPOLIS:

Carol Johnson's $155,000 severance package consists of:

• $75,000 for about 122 days of unused vacation and sick pay (28 fewer days than the maximum employees are allowed accumulate)

• $80,000 payment for a retirement annuity.

[Lijahsbubbe]

How many of you have made so much money, you could afford to give some of it back? It was so predictable that she would leave. They ALL do. And get rewarded for it. This whole system needs to be overhauled. And include the State University Presidents on that too.

[motzman]

Carol Johnson's $155,000 severance package consists of:

• $75,000 for about 122 days of unused vacation and sick pay (28 fewer days than the maximum employees are allowed accumulate)

• $80,000 payment for a retirement annuity.

Un-#%^*!@& believable.

[mcenedo]

Johnson has worked for the Minneapolis district for 32 years, including the past six years as superintendent.

Doesn't seem outlandish for 32 years.

Giving back the raise?

Find something else to worry about.

And I hate the NEA more than anything other than the lying liberal media.

[GailA]

U of Tenn disgraced ex pres is to receive the balance of his salary for the year... to get out of dodge before he embarasses the State even more. He lived the high life style on the taxserfs dime.

[Hildy]

UUUGGGHHHHHH. Everytime I read something like this I want to vomit, I literally get ill.

[ErnBatavia]

Un-#%^*!@& believable.

Unfortunately, it's not....these peoplewho live to suckle off the public teat know exactly what they're up to.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

You don't think people should receive their unused vacation time?

[Lijahsbubbe]

Doesn't seem outlandish for 32 years

Find something else to worry about

It's very outlandish when she leaves the city school system in the same craphole state it was when she began. It is very outlandish when the district shoves 40 kids into a class room because they don't have enough money. It is very outlandish when they are cutting bus service to the kids because they don't have enough money.

It's very outlandish when it states right in the article that they are compensated this way because they know the superintendents will leave for greener pastures. Every three or four years (when the superintendents leave) the districts spend taxpayer money doing a 'search' nationwide for a superintendent. They all move from state to state and we pay for it.

And worry about it? I don't know that I would call it worry, I call it anger and voicing my opinion on how my money is spent.

[Lijahsbubbe]

You don't think people should receive their unused vacation time?

No, but I think getting paid over six hundred a day is crazy.

They didn't even mention the car she receives with the job.

[Lijahsbubbe]

It's just all so predictable. They come and they go. The only thing that changes is their salaries get higher. The schools are still screaming they don't have enough money and the property taxes keep going up.

I'd like to know just what it is they do that makes them so preciously valuable. They seem to just go around and make public speeches.

The one we had in St. Paul brought her own 'team' with her from Chicago that the taxpayers had to pay for. I think she's gone already. If she's not, I will bet she soon will be.

[Rebelbase]

These damn job hopping school supers are a major reason public schools are in such crappy conditon. I've seen three of these weasils blow through my school system in the past few years.

By now promoting from within, the school board brings in these outsiders who don't give a damn about the community, and only work towards getting the mega contract with perks galore. Alienating the community, fracturing the morale of the teaching staff county-wide and begging for an increase in taxes so they can bloat the budget means nothing to them as they will move on to the next community and start all over again, but at a higher salary.

[Rebelbase]

By now=By not

[Lijahsbubbe]

And they have a sweet deal going with the public school board. They scratch each other's backs. They vote her raises and she promotes them and their agenda.

[Conservateacher]

Doesn't seem outlandish for 32 years.

The 80 grand would be in addition to her state retirement.

[philetus]

They take care of their own.

[org.whodat]

Doesn't seem outlandish for 32 years

Well I beg to differ, I know of no reason that anyone in this position should get this amount of money. Consider the complete failure that 99% of them are.

[thegreatbeast]

Find something else to worry about. Wrong! This is exactly the right thing to get excited about. This goes a long way in explaining the high cost of gov't. The pols and the bureaucrats have established themselves as a special class with a special sense of entitlement. What is changing is that , not being happy with the lifetime boom or bust-safe sinecures, these snorting pigs are now eyeing the private sector's high salaries and golden parachutes. We must stop it here and now. Public sector positions can not be compared with public sector jobs; they sure as hell can't draw compensation comparable to the private sector. Simply do the math.

[lawdude]

Sounds like a pretty typical retirement/severance package. Do I note a tad bit of jealousy?

I have never complained at what someone else earns. Now some of the golden parachutes with CEOs boil my 'nads a mite.

[Lijahsbubbe]

Do I note a tad bit of jealousy?

Nope. Doesn't sound typical to me. How do you get 75,000 from 122 days of sick pay?

I don't begrudge what people make, in the private sector. But when you have a school system that is a failure and you're paying these people with our money, with no results, that I do begrudge.

[packrat35]

Bummer. Loook like she's heading my way. Wonder how bad Memphis is getting screwed in this.

The Memphis school system is such a shithole however, that I doubt she can make it worse.