Warren Consolidated's Super takes a voluntary paycut

Warren Consolidated Schools SuperintendentRobert Livernois knows that with a 4.8 million dollar deficit facing the district during the 2014-15 school year that there will have to be a lot of belt tightening. He started with tightening his own salary by 10%. He is reducing his salary by $18,000 for the upcoming school year. With the teachers union revisiting contract negotiations, they will have one less bullet to aim at the district at upcoming negotiations. Are any other administrators doing the same thing in Warren? Teachers have been doing a lot already with many teachers having reduced wages and benefits. Depending on your viewpoint, the downward spiral is having an effect on student achievement and teacher moral as a lack of money has taken its toll on the teaching profession.

Warren Consolidated superintendent takes voluntary pay cut

By Frank DeFrank, The Macomb Daily Posted: 06/06/14, 3:17 PM EDT |

Some might view it as a grandstand ploy that carries no real significance. Others see a small gesture of leadership.
But the bottom line is inarguable: Warren Consolidated Schools Superintendent Robert Livernois won’t earn as much money next year.

Robert Livernois

With his district facing a projected shortfall of $4.8 million this year and more than twice as much for 2014-2015, Livernois told the Board of Education this week he will take a voluntary 10 percent salary cut. The reduction will amount to about $18,000.
“It’s a great gesture of leading by example,” said Brian White, president of the Warren Consolidated Board of Education.
Or maybe Livernois intended to send a message?
Warren Consolidated Schools’ four employee unions, including the largest, the Warren Education Association, which represents the district’s teachers, are in the midst of discussing “wage re-openers,” the superintendent said. With the budget belt- tightening, those negotiations could be difficult.
“The goal is to get (the deficit) down,” Livernois said.
School board member Ben Lazarus, a frequent critic of the administration on matters of finance, said Livernois’ gesture is too late and too little.
To read the rest of the article, click the link below to the Macomb Daily (vvv)
http://www.macombdaily.com/social-affairs/20140606/warren-consolidated-superintendent-takes-voluntary-pay-cut