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112202 Opinion poll shows unease over Katonah-Lewisboro School Salaries
Katonah-Lewisboro School District
By FELIX CARROLL
An opinion poll conducted on the private Web site www.lewisboroOnline.org indicates unease among Katonah-Lewisboro School District residents over administration pay raises.
Results of a separate poll on the proposed purchase of the Andes property for sports fields proved to be in line with voter results on Tuesday.
The Web site is run by Bruce Pavalow of Lewisboro.
The Lewisboro Online Administration Salary Raises Poll consisted of five questions. The results are as follows: Question #1 was: "Are you comfortable with the recent raises for our top three administrators?" Out of 89 responses, as of Nov. 11, excluding duplicate responses, 13 percent of the respondents said yes, 84 percent said no, and 3 percent were undecided.
Question #1A was: "What yearly percentage increase do you feel the Superintendent (Robert Lichtenfeld) deserves?" Out of 86 responses, as of Nov. 11, excluding duplicate responses, 40 percent of the respondents said 0 percent to 2 percent; 40 percent said 2 percent to 4 percent; 13 percent said 4 percent to 6 percent; 1 percent said 6 percent to 8 percent; and 6 percent said 8 percent to 10 percent.
Question #1B was: "What ?early percentage increase do you feel the Assistant Superintendent (Karen Benedict) deserves?" Out of 85 responses, as of Nov. 11, excluding duplicate responses, 46 percent of the respondents said 0 percent to 2 percent; 38 percent said 2 percent to 4 percent; 13 percent said 4 percent to 6 percent; 2 percent said 6 percent to 8 percent; and 1 percent said 8 percent to 10 percent.
Question #1C was: "What yearly percentage increase do you feel the Director of Administrative Services (John Thihdeau) deserves?" Out of 85 responses, as of Nov. 11. excluding duplicate responses, 46 percent of the respondents said 0 percent to 2 percent; 36 percent said 2 percent to 4 percent; 12 percent said 4 percent to 6 percent; 4 percent said 6 percent to 8 percent; and 2 percent said 8 percent to 10 percent.
Question #2 was: "Do you feel that these increases may play a factor in teacher salary negotiations which are currently underway?" Out of a total of 85 responses, 94 percent of the respondents said yes while 6 percent said no.
Question #3 was: "Do you feel that adequate disclosure of contingencies such as these salary increases are
proper 1% reflected in our budget process?" Out of a total of 88 responses, 9 percent of the respondents said yes while 86 percent said no and 5 percent were undecided.
Question #4 was: "Do you feel that it is appropriate for the hoard of education to renegotiate existing contracts prior to their expiration?" Out of a total of 89 responses, 26 percent of the respondents said yes while 55 percent said no, and 19 percent were undecided.
Question #5 was: "Should top administrator salary increases be negotiated on an annual basis or a multi-year basis?" Out of a total of 89 responses, 49 percent of the respondents said top administrator salary increases should be negotiated on an annual basis, 33 percent said top administrator salary increases should he negotiated on a multi-year basis, and 18 percent were undecided.
The following are two key comments from community members on the administration salary raises:
"l fully supported both the budget and the bond; I feel betrayed by our top administrators and by the school board. We have been asked, justifiably I believe, to make sacrifices for the sake of our children's education. Our children's excellent teachers are asked
to do the same thing in their contract negotiations. I would not object to modest increases in these hard economic times - Mr. Thihdcau's raise is not out of line for the fine job he does."
"After seeing how hard Dr. Lichtenfeld and all of the administrative leadership worked last year to get our budget passed, I think they deserve a fair raise as indicated above. In order to maintain such dedicated and knowledgeable people, we need to compensate them."
The results of the poll will he post ed until the end of the month on www.LewisboroOnline.org.
The Andes Property Poll indicated 55 percent of respondents were against the purchase; 40 percent were in favor; and 5 percent were undecided. The actual vote Tuesday was 62.5 percent against the purchase and 37.5 percent in favor.
"If we take the 5 percent undecided votes from the Lewisboro Online poll and assume that they decided to vote no, then the Lewisboro Online poll results are 60 percent against and 40 percent for," said Mr. Pavalow, who ran unsuccessfully for the school board last spring. "The Lewisboro Online poll is within 2.5 percent points of the true vote."