Mar 13, 2008 10:22 pm US/Eastern
Dade Teachers Outraged Over Budget Cut Proposals
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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Miami Dade School Superintendent Rudy Crew
CBS
Miami Dade School District officials are searching for ways to cut the fat from an already slim budget as it tries to avoid bankruptcy. Their mission is to slice way $31-million from this year's budget and another $200-million from next year's budget.
Many Miami Dade school teachers are outraged at some of the items being cut and where the cuts could take place.
"They're trading out insurance for a raise," cried a teacher during a recent rally.
Not only will the budgetary cuts take away some of the free health insurance provided to teachers, they will also force more than 200 members of their support staff to face mandatory lay-offs.
"Teachers do the work, the test scores come in and the ones that get all the money are in these buildings," said teacher Elisa Groso, referring to the Miami Dade Schools Administration.
CBS4's Tiffani Helberg investigated the records of the school district's employees and found some of the top earners in the district, a grouped she called the "100 Grand Club" seemed to be growing as student enrollment shrank. Records indicated more than 400 district employees start with a base salary of $100-thousand a year or more, plus bonuses, which costs the district $58-million a year.
Of the top earners, nearly 60-percent were administrators; more than $33-million for 224 individuals. Of those, 59 employees held some of the more elite positions in the school district's hierarchy, nearly one-fith of the "$100-Grand Club's" money.
"I think it's too much," said school board member Dr. Marta Perez, "I think we need to pay our teachers more and I think we need to crack down on the bureaucracy. They have cars, they have bonuses, they make over $100,000. It makes you wonder where our priorities are."
Miami Dade school district officials said a number of teachers were also in the $100-thousand a year salary bracket.
At the top of the salary list was the district's Superintendent Rudy Crew who earns nearly $400-thousand a year in salary and bonuses.
Another top earner, according to the records, is Dwight Bernard, the former principal of Northwestern Senior High School who was indicted by a Grand Jury for his part in covering up a sex scandal. Bernard's salary and bonuses totaled more than $133-thousand a year. Bernard was transferred out of Northwestern after the scandal was uncovered and is currently considered a 'principal on assignment'; he works out of the district's administration building.
Crew says he understands that teachers are upset but everyone will have to cut back to make up for the budget shortfalls to come.
"This agenda has been hijacked, it's been hijacked by a steady stream of lost revenue to the district," said Crew, "It has not been hijacked by bad spending. It has not been hijacked by misappropriation of funds."
Crew defended recent raises to some administration staff members saying they were needed to prevent employees from leaving the district. In the future, Crew said he'll trim the fat as much as possible and may be forced to lay off some of the administration's staff.
He'll also try to get a handle on the amount of overtime being paid to district employees. A state audit found Miami Dade lacked oversight last year, doling out nearly $28-million in overtime. The records show overtime pushed many employees into the "$100-Grand Club." In fact, it added another 250 employees into the group than those who were in it the year before. That includes 150 teachers who made more than $100 thousand a year, with overtime, in the district.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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