School board will handle the Superintendent’s $ 80,000 sick leave allowance, hire consultants to build a team of school counselors, and a new district manager
The Washoe County School District Board of Directors is meeting on Tuesday, November 23 for its regular meeting. The board is considering hiring consultants to find a replacement superintendent and another consultant so that “trustees can compromise to work better as a team,” notes the meeting’s agenda.
The board has allocated $ 60,000 to a research firm to replace Superintendent Kristen McNeill, who has announced that she will retire in 2022. Four firms will be running for the board starting at noon.
We also need to discuss a possible payment of $ 80,000 to McNeill for unused sick leave. School staff said the payment was normal.
“It is recommended that the Board of Directors approve the payment of an amount of twenty-five percent (25%) of his unused balance at the date of retirement. This is also consistent with other superintendents who received sick leave pay at the time of separation, regardless of the reason for the separation, ”noted a staff report.
The former superintendents received the following payments:
- Traci Davis – employment contract specifying the number of days to pay compared to a percentage (30.5 days paid)
- Pedro Martinez -25% of accumulated but unused sickness balance (47 paid days)
- Heath Morrison – 50% of accumulated but unused sickness balance (27.75 paid days)
- Paul Dugan – 25% of accumulated but unused sickness balance (62.5 paid days)
Other items on the agenda include hiring shortages, COVID-19 mitigation updates and approval of a cost-of-living wage increase for the school police.
An arbitrator sided with the school police union to give the police a 2.8% increase. School officials, partly citing declining student enrollment and the massive property tax settlement on Incline Village, said it could only give them a 1% increase.
The referee disagreed.
“Although the financial situation of the district is not strong, the general fund is financially sound enough to finance a modest [cost of living adjustment] and a lump sum payment to the police, sergeants and detective… ”said the arbitrator.
Watch the meeting online: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChHIK-aa3yh6Z4EHo1Zntwg
Bob Conrad is publisher, editor and co-founder of This Is Reno. He has held communications positions for various state agencies and received a PhD from the University of Nevada at Reno in 2011, where he completed a thesis on social media, journalism, and crisis communication. In addition to managing This Is Reno, he holds a part-time position in the extension office at Mineral County University of Nevada.