Is the Strongsville Board Spending YOUR Money Wisely?

One fact about our Board’s spending:

We have a retire/rehire superintendent.  The original premise of retire/rehire was that a superintendent was hired at a lower cost because the superintendent already receives a full pension.

Board member Scott Maloney said,

“My understanding is that Jim Gray was originally hired into the Strongsville school district on a one-year contract to serve in an interim capacity for the 2003-04 school year following the abrupt resignation of the prior Superintendent in May of 2003. I agree with this action because an appropriate Superintendent search for a school year beginning in August should start no later than the preceding January. However, once the interim Superintendent was hired, the board failed to follow through on its promise to the community to conduct a Superintendent search for the 2004-05 school year. The board instead gave Mr. Gray two additional three-year contracts. His current contract does not expire until the end of the 2008-09 school year. Rather than grant contract extensions to a formerly retired Superintendent, the board should have conducted the search and hired a new leader for the 2004-05 school year, someone who would make a 7-10 year commitment. I also feel strongly that the Superintendent should live in Strongsville, as the position is too important and has too many ties to the community. Mr. Gray does not live in Strongsville.”  

http://mystrongnet.org/maloney.html


Instead, Maloney was a member of the Board who hired Jeff Lampert, a retire/rehire superintendent who does not live in Strongsville, at a salary over $35,000 more for his first year in the district than Mr. Gray earned in his final year a few months earlier.

You decide - Has the Board been truthful about its spending and policies?

(Better yet, call the Board Office or go to the Board meeting and ask the Board to explain itself.)