IS IT TRUE? June 3, 2011

8

The Mole #??

IS IT TRUE? June 3, 2011

IS IT TRUE that Vince Bertram the superintendent of the EVSC is not the only local superintendent in the Evansville area that has resigned to move up the ladder of success elsewhere?…that Joshua Powell who has served as the superintendent of the Union County, KY school system for three years has also caught the eye of another district?…that Mr. Powell is thought to have done a great job in Union County and has presided over an improvement in academic achievement?…that Evansville and the surrounding region seems to be a perpetual revolving door for public professionals?…that while Dr. Bertram is going to a national program called Project Lead the Way, Mr. Powell’s destination holds many lessons to be learned by all of the local school boards, local government, and local non-profit entities?

IS IT TRUE that Mr. Powell will be moving to become the superintendent of the Montgomery County, KY school system in the Appalachian foothills?…that his new district has one high school, one middle school, three elementary schools, and a couple of specialty programs?…that Montgomery County High School has 1,200 students and that the entire district has only 4,885 students?…that this is slightly larger than Union County but only a small fraction (21.7%) of the enrollment of EVSC?…that the largest city in Montgomery County is Mount Sterling with a population of 7,057 while the entire county is home to only 25,835 souls?…that one would expect that the superintendent of EVSC with literally 361% more students and similarly more staff, budget etc. would be a much higher paid position than the same position in Montgomery County?…that you will be SURPRISED?

IS IT TRUE that the Courier & Press last December reported Dr. Bertram’s salary as $166,875 and that there has been on spat after another over increases and contractual bonuses since he was attracted to Evansville four years ago?…that Mr. Powell will be earning a base salary of $140,000 with a guaranteed package of $155,800 to head the much smaller Montgomery County school system?…that Mount Sterling, KY has a lower cost of living than Evansville so that these salaries are equivalent?…that for a district with the complexity, urban issues, and 361% larger enrollment to offer equivalent or even lower compensation than an Appalachian school system is self defeating for the EVSC?

IS IT TRUE that Mount Sterling, KY grew in population by 20% during the last decade while Evansville continued to see its population shrink?…that insufficient compensation and limited opportunities are one of the main reasons that people are leaving?…that if seeing an Appalachian town beat the tar out of Evansville does not open some people’s eyes around here that one must wonder just what it is going to take?

IS IT TRUE that it was recently opined by a member of the Evansville Vanderburgh school board that the outside candidate pool to replace Dr. Bertram would be “thin”?…that the response to that considering the uncompetitive level of the salary history and the acidic tone of the community with respect to compensation is to be expected?…that the board members of Evansville’s public and non-profit entities need to go to some training on how things are done and compensated in the growing parts of this country?…that this area is not even close to the reality of what is going on in the growing areas of America when it comes to attracting talent?

IS IT TRUE that the shelves of local government are filled with very good plans written by $300 per hour consultants and talent that passes through on occasion?…that paying for great plans and then trying to hire people to execute these plans for substandard wages NEVER EVER WORKS?…that without the right talent in place to execute plans then these plans were a waste in the first place?…that Evansville has historically had a problem with execution?…that right now Evansville does not even have a master plan that shows an arena at the corner of Main and MLK?…that it really does not matter if we as a community are unwilling to pay a wage that will attract world class talent to execute a plan and appropriate the funds to pay for it?

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8 COMMENTS

    • Not surprised. It makes Evansville look even more unrealistic. I do notice that the citizens of Henderson who made comments mostly seem to be cut from the same cloth as the folks on this side of the money saving bridge in that they think market rate pay in public positions is wrong. Oh well, give the basketball coach a raise and whine about the superintendents pay. By the way the author of the letter and I share the same last name but I do not know him.

      • I believe the the professional City Manager of Henderson also makes more than the Mayor of Evansville.
        I will say that I like our City Manager form of government here in Henderson. The manager makes recommendations and the mayor and commissioners vote them up or down. We also have non-partisan elections here.
        That would never happen in Evansville. Remember, Evansville was not even supposed to be an Indiana county, but a political deal was done! Evansville has stayed true ever since.

        • Kentucky has a City Manager form of government. The Louisville City Manager makes about triple what the Mayor of Louisville makes and the Mayor of Louisville was making $100,000 exactly the last time I looked a couple of years ago. Mayoral duties in places that have City Managers are mostly symbolic consisting of speeches, trips to sister cities, kissing babies, and backslapping with business leaders. City Managers run the city. Kentucky is better than Indiana on this.

          It is entirely feasible that a crook, an idiot or both can be elected to the office of Mayor. Look at Detroit, they just had to go through that and Illinois must have a special wing in a prison for their Governors. Indiana should adopt the City Manager format so that we are no exposed to the risk of electing a popular but incapable person into any position of authority.

          • Exactly! This is the form of City Governance that is the formula for Success, built on Business acumen, with Community Goals keyed to a solid infrastructure. A School superintendent is like a City Manager,–You want the Best?–Pay that Man or Woman. It’s a wise investment.

  2. Excellent information. Unfortunately, I don’t think Evansville will wake up. The majority of comments that you read are from people that think that Bertram was overpaid and didn’t do the school system any good. Evansville has a bad case of wanting to complain about everything, but not get off their butts or get into their wallets to do anything about it. It gets frustrating and leaves no doubt as to why the city is shrinking and our young talent leaves for other cities.

  3. It would be interesting to know just how many people now working in the EVSC have a superintendents license or the accreditation to obtain a license, the revolving door will continue until they hire someone from within EVSC that has roots here in Evansville.

  4. How many people know the Indiana Superintendent’s Assoc. has a team that looks for way for superintendents to get more money paid to them, so as to increase their retirement pay? One of those tricks is giving the superintendent a monthly cash car allowance, instead of having an auto leased by the corporation for his use. That counts as wages.

    Instead of buying him an annuity for each year of service, as was done in the past, the EVSC gave Bertram $20,000 per year to invest as he pleased. When you added up all the add-ons, including the $9,000+ annual car allowance, annuity funding and the $15,000 bonus, he made over $200,000 one year. Tony Bennett, “over-seeing” the entire state makes only a fraction of that amount.

    Just in case no one is aware of it, the Indiana School Board Association is headed by FORMER school superintendents. The voting taxpayers elect the school board members and they get advice on how to do their job by the cohorts of the person they are supposed to be supervising. What is wrong with this picture?

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