Editor's Note: In a piece published on April 26, Patch contributor Chari Topol-Allison invited Rye Neck School District parents to consider if in these tough economic times, they should continue to pass budgets with automatic salary increases, such as those included in the 2009-10 budget. The article elicited several responses, including a few by school administrators who stated that administrative salaries sustained a freeze, not a raise, from the 2008-09 to the 2009-10 school years. Below is the reporter's explanation of why those salary freezes were not included in her piece.

The New York State Education Department requires that public school districts submit data containing administrative salaries above a certain amount ($118,000 in 2010) for the ensuing school year by a specified date in May every year (Law 1716).

According to Kimberly Bucci, assistant superintendent for Business and Finance, it has been the practice of the Rye Neck UFSD to report current salaries in place of the next school year's numbers because administrative raises are not negotiated until after the deadline.

Therefore, because the salaries in the NYSED charts are one year behind, it was not reported in a previous article that administrators agreed to a salary freeze for the current school year in response to the declining economy. (The chart to the right, which was furnished by the district, lists the salaries paid in the correct year.)

When asked how a voter can make an informed decision on the budget if he or she does not know what administrative raises will be, Dr. Bucci replied that residents are voting on the bottom line, not specific line items. During the year, she said, money is often moved around between lines. In a proposed budget, there is a "sum of money" proposed for administrative salaries, to be allocated when all "agreements" are finalized. They wait, said Superintendent Dr. Peter Mustich, until after the budget vote so they can know how much of a percentage raise they can offer each individual administrator. Unlike the teachers, these raises are based on merit and could be different for each administrator who has his or her own separate agreement, he said.

The NYSED Web site states that "The data are self-reported [and] un-audited..." When asked why this information required by law is not verified, Jay O'Connor from the State Education Management Office said that they do not have the resources to check data submitted. Therefore, the office has no way of knowing if the numbers submitted are accurate. However, updates might be handled on a case by case basis if requested by a district, he added.

One might conclude then, that Rye Neck is not the only school district reporting their figures in this manner.

Debbie Manetta, director of public information for the Mamaroneck UFSD, says that Mamaroneck, where administrators and district-wide directors are part of a bargaining unit called the Mamaroneck Association of School Administrators, provides the state with the numbers for the ensuing school year if the salary increases are known. If negotiations are not final, current salaries are published in the budget with an asterisk explaining that the Board of Education has not yet determined the salaries for the ensuing budget year.

Rye Neck will be able to report the correct numbers for the 2010/11 school year as the top administrators, according Dr. Mustich, have already agreed to a 2.5 percent raise across the board based on the salaries from 2008-09 and 2009-10. 

In an article featured on The Journal News Web site on April 30, Lisa Davis, executive director of the Westchester-Putnam School Boards Association, was quoted as saying, "Hopefully, people will take a look at the budget and really try to understand what's behind the numbers."

Bucci and Mustich have both said that residents should not be afraid to come to them at any time to answer questions or listen to comments and complaints.