Schools give extra as top leaders leave

Some Milwaukee-area school boards have got given hard cash and coverage benefits worth 10s of one thousands of dollars to departing overseers that are above and beyond what were called for in the superintendents' contracts.

Retirement Benefits

Some Extra Benefits

Germantown Overseer Victor Dante Gabriel Rossetti will retire June 30 with more than than $54,000 worth of further benefits granted him by the Germantown School Board: Retirement payment: $1,000 Rupture wage for 35 fresh ill days: $9,512 Health insurance: $36,852 Long-term-care insurance: $1,233 "Buy-back" of two weeks' vacation: $5,435

Source: Germantown School District

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In Germantown, where a $16.5 million school referendum is on the April 1 ballot, Overseer Victor Rossetti's contract was put to run out at the end of this school year. But the School Board decided to give him early retirement benefits for which he had not qualified.

Rossetti, who have worked for the territory for seven years, will retire June 30 with an further $54,000 in hard cash and coverage benefits, including $15,000 for rupture wage and two hebdomads of fresh vacation.

Germantown School Board President Michael Erdmann could not be reached for remark on why the board in January approved the retirement package. Frailty President Michael Schultz referred inquiries to Erdmann.

Rossetti, 63, who was on ill leave of absence for four hebdomads last year, said the board knew he had wellness issues when it decided on the package, which includes paying the full cost of his wellness coverage insurance premiums for two years.

"They tried to be as compassionate as they possibly could," he said.

Rossetti also pointed out that the Germantown board had granted early retirement benefits to other decision makers who had not qualified for them and that he had not exercised his right in former old age to be paid for fresh vacation. He said that would have got amounted to about $35,000, or nearly two-thirds of the value of his retirement package.

In the Mequon-Thiensville School District, Overseer Henry Martin Robert Slotterback is also retiring June 30, but with a bundle worth $149,000.

The School Board says, however, that the payout will salvage the territory money because Slotterback, who had one twelvemonth left on his contract, would have got received $186,000 in wage and benefits next year.

Board President Simon Peter Rock said he began discussing Slotterback's programs with Slotterback last twelvemonth because his contract was approaching to an end and because the territory was afraid that Assistant Overseer Demond Means might be lured away by another territory in the coming year.

In November, Slotterback accepted a retirement understanding offered by the board, which in bend hired Means to replace him.

Slotterback, 57, said he took the understanding because he was planning to relocate to Gopher State or Prairie State after his contract ended. He have since recognized a superintendent's occupation in Minnesota.

Slotterback's understanding includes a $20,000 rupture benefit and $129,000 worth of health, life and dental insurance benefits, which would supply him coverage for eight years, when he turns 65.

As was true with his overseer contract, Slotterback will be paid the same amount in hard cash if he chosens not to utilize the benefits, Rock said.

"From my perspective," Slotterback said, "since I was intending to relocate anyway, it was beneficial."

Another overseer who retired last twelvemonth at the end of his contract, David Bruce Maureen Catherine Connolly of the Brown Deer School District, received further benefits worth more than than $60,000.

The territory is continuing for five old age the yearly payments Maureen Catherine Connolly received for not taking the district's wellness coverage and is making further payments to an annuity, according to his agreement.

Brown Deer School Board President Dennis Gryphon said the board was not obligated to supply the further benefits but did so out of a sense of fairness.

He said that other decision makers and instructors had recently received contracts with similar retirement benefits, and that the board had been discussing providing further benefits to Maureen Catherine Maureen Catherine Connolly but hadn't done so before Connolly announced he would retire.

Several other schools districts, however, have got held the line on retirement payments.

James Benfield was the overseer in New German Capital for 15 old age before retiring at the end of the last school twelvemonth when his contract expired. He have also taken a new superintendent's job, in North Carolina.

The New German Capital School Board rejected Benfield's petitions for retirement benefits beyond those in his contract, said School Board President Keith Heun.

"We were very careful and we were very adamantine at the clip that we were not going to travel above and beyond Mr. Benfield's contract because it was not in the best involvement of the taxpayers of New German Capital for us to do," he said.

The Greenfield, Hartland Arrowhead, Hartford, Muskego-Norway, Nicolet and Waukesha school districts, which have got also had recent overseer retirements, all said they were not providing any further retirement benefits to the departing superintendents.

And in the Whitnall School District, Overseer Karenic Petric dropped her petition for a $230,000 early retirement bundle after it stirred contention in December.

Attorney Barry Forbes, staff advocate for the Wisconsin River Association of School Boards, said some boards might be thought about the long term when providing further retirement benefits.

The marketplace for overseers is "very competitive" and any prospective campaigner likely would talk to the departing overseer before deciding whether to accept a overseer job, Forbes said.