'It is unusual for a district to get to this level,’ said Debbie Ratcliffe, TEA director of communications
By Curt W. Olson
COlson@TexasBudgetSource.com
Read the complete story
Dripping Springs Independent School District taxpayers should watch the next moves from the district now that it has a new leader.
Superintendent Bruce Gearing started working Monday after moving from Marshall ISD, now earning $167,000, a jump from the $150,000 in Marshall ISD, according to the contracts.
Dripping Springs ISD and Marshall have something in common. Both districts sought approval of Tax Ratification Elections and voters shouted with a resounding, “No.”
TREs drew attention last fall as school trustees in several Texas ISDs sought power to raise property taxes because they would receive less money from the state. State lawmakers appropriated $47.3 billion for public education in all funds for 2012-13, a decrease of $2.8 billion, according to the Legislative Budget Board’s Fiscal Size-Up document.
Voters in Dripping Springs and Marshall essentially told district leaders to live within their means.
Meanwhile, Gearing gets that higher salary despite Dripping Springs having a smaller student enrollment, about 4,256 compared to 5,393 in Marshall.
7 comments:
With the DSISD Superintendent making almost $170K a year, I'm sure he will achieve the following:
1) Ensure that all the kids at DSISD will be accepted to either UT or Texas State, and/or get into a trade apprenticeship.
2) No one will drop out and all the kids will graduate with at least a C average.
He will be worth it if he can acheive those two objectives.
Dear "In Honor"..
I'm unsure of any cynicism in your post or if you'll be satisfied if Dr. Gearing achieves just the stated goals that you lay out. I would hope that the students in our district would learn a great many things to include the love of learning for the sake of learning, and not just for finding a job, as the one can certainly lead to the other as a part of the opportunity that comes from learning the basics of an education - reading, (w)riting, and (a)rithmetic.
I pray that with the new hire, a new era is being ushered in. We'll see, I for one am always the eternal optimist, and hope for the highest and best from our local District.
I for one am not against paying a highly qualified school district superindentent $167K given the number of employees he is responsible for and the fact that so many of our children's future and competitive employability is involved in their public education - an education that for all practical purposes is the future of our nation.
That said, I am not willing to trash or disparage financially successful public sector employment.
Why? Because I believe much of the anger and animosity directed at educators, government workers, government unions and collective bargaining is a result of "private sector" disillusionment on the part of the right wing and the so-called political independents.
If a worker citizen is too naive or too much in denial to finally acknowledge that "right to work," "free markets," "private property rights" etc. is an intentional political ruse perpetrated by private sector special interests and the big corporate lobby to pay American workers less and less (regardless of political leanings), than being an angry victim is your station in life.
Until the "right" side of the American work force admits they are being ceremoneously duped into giving up being paid fair wages & sound health benefits as well as strong worker safety protections, blaming the public sector for playing a life "victim" is unacceptable.
In essence, you are not a victim in these affairs, and dumping your victim anger on educators and public sector employees is just the opposite of "personal responsibility" - which is supposed to be the cornerstone philosophy of the American free markets mindset.
Kudos to Dr. Bruce Gearing for getting what he think is his worth. He is not being a worker victim here, and all Hays County citizens should applaud him for his free markets negotiating skills.
Simply compare his salary to the compensation of some private sector CEO with roughly the same number of employees - who probably does much less in terms of producing real "value" in society - and we will most likely see that Dr. Gearing's salary is a good value.
Just what does a Superintendent of Schools do to improve education for our kids? My guess is nothing! Mostly they officiate and campaign for the "poor under paid teachers" and new sports arenas. I wonder, can he speak fluent Spanish? Does he intend to ask for and spend more money on vocational education than football? I'll be surprised if there is any improvement in scores unless he knows a new method of artificially pumping them up.
It sure looks like DSISD got the message, huh? If that is living within your means, it's over form the taxpayers. Since when is a Superintendent's salary dependent on how many students in the district? I figure it is just another excuse to pay exorbitant compensation to someone that spent too much time in college. No one should make top salaries when they work for the tax payers. Rocky's comments are getting more and more predictable. Both he and his wife work in the education vacuum so take what he says with a pound or two of salt.
Nothing is more predictable than the cowardice of some Anonymous comment that brings someone's spouse into the debate.
This is typically a right wing cowardice, but not always.
My opinions have nothing to do with my wife. So, Anonymous, get a pair of testicles and debate me directly with facts and your real name.
Or, if you, Anonymous, are a woman, go back to being your husband's rib where you think you came from.
Btw, both my wife I work in the private sector, which tells the readers how ignorant this Anonymous education hater really is.
DISD graduates 99% of its high school students and 93% of them go to college or some other higher education after high school.
That ain't nothing to sneeze at.
Jon Thompson:
You really ought to stay in the development game and not just assume you also need to run the school district.
You really ARE getting a big head, dude.
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