Jun 18, 2008 11:05 pm US/Eastern
Principal Who Wanted $1 Salary Wants Board Seat
Larry Feldman Is The Former Principal Of Devon Air K-8 Center
He'll Run Against Incumbent Evelyn Greer
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
A South Florida school principal who offered to stay on the job for $1 a year is now running for the Miami-Dade School Board. Larry Feldman filed the paperwork on Tuesday.
Feldman recently retired as principal of Devon Air K-8 Center in Southwest Miami-Dade. He'll be running against incumbent school board member Evelyn Greer.
"I know it's not correct in my case," said Feldman. "Would you rather have $119,000 in your pocket to save someone's job, than have me for $1?
The board rejected his deal. He says its bad decisions like this one that inspired him to run for office.
"You've got some mismanagement of our funds. We've had our tax dollars not being used appropriately, and we've had parents, kids, whose voices weren't being heard."
Feldman believes the school board should be cutting into local programs that have not been working, and cutting from the central administrative office.
As part of a statewide program, Feldman agreed to retire at the end of this school year, then offered to take a pay cut and stay on the job to help the district, which is in the midst of severe financial troubles. Miami-Dade schools are currently struggling to deal with a quarter billion dollar deficit -- the result of state budget cuts and rising costs. Feldman offered to work for $1 a year if he could keep his health insurance, vacation days and administrative team.
Parents of students at Devon Air were devastated when Superintendent Rudy Crew and the School Board turned down Feldman's offer. The district said they denied Feldman's offer because it has to abide by its salary schedule and a dollar doesn't fit into that.
Feldman says he wants to help the School Board control spending, fight mismanagement and allow the public to have more of a voice in School Board business.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Burned Teen's Family Staying Positive
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
