Contract Public Hearing

Yue Yin

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Process

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Early Rejection Was NOT in the Best Interests of WLCSC

• It was not in the best interests of our district that the board officers rejected the other strong (even more suitable for us) finalist before the negotiation with the current finalist.
• Unless the other finalist was unacceptable, a common practice is that we hold the qualified finalist till the contract is signed with your top choice.
• We have more negotiation power: If the finalist asks for a package that is too high, we can still extend the job to the other finalist.
• We have a backup plan: If the top choice does not work (e.g., use our offer to get a raise in his/her current district), we can still offer the job to the other finalist.

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Early Participation

• I wish that I was given the opportunity to discuss this contract before it was extended to the candidate and before it was released to the public.
• I wish that my discussion of the contract now in the public will not jeopardize my working relationship with the new superintendent.
• For the best interest of our district, however, I still have to share my perspectives openly.

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Salary and District Size

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• Salary’ = 108614.261 + 7.316 * 2500 = $126904.261

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Candidate’s District Size and Salary

• Salary information is obtained from openpayroll.com

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• The current candidate’s district has fewer than 1700 students.
• The candidate’s current salary is slightly lower than 127 K.
• We do not need to go all the way up to 160K to attract the finalist to come to our district, especially our district is so attractive by itself and we have another strong finalist competing for this position too.

Reference to Previous Superintendent

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Dr. Rocky Killion’s Salary

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https://openpayrolls.com/rocky-d-killion-34648200

Dr. Rocky Killion’s Achievement

• 2007 ~ 2021, 14 years of experience of working in our district
• Successfully passed the referendum
• Developed the strategic plan
• Renovating the buildings and building WLIS
• … much more
• One of the three finalists in a superintendent search in South Carolina in 2015 and “there have been people interested in him many times.” –Journal and Courier, April 26, 2015. Source: https://www.jconline.com/story/news/education/2015/04/26/report-killion-superintendent-sc/26409903/
• Still he did NOT get an automatic raise every year.

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It is unclear what will warrant the candidate to get the automatic raise promised in this contract.

District Comparison

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160K or more starting salary will make sense

• If the candidate comes from districts which are similar to our district in terms of students’ demographic backgrounds, students’ needs, and family expectations.
• Or if the candidate comes from bigger, more complicated, or challenging districts than ours. That is, if the candidate has experience of handling more complex, diverse, and challenging situations, the candidate can handle an easier task in our district.
• E.g.,: Carmel Clay, Zionsville, TSC, and LSC

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∙ The candidate comes from a district that is vastly different from ours.�∙ The candidate’s current district seems to be easier to handle than ours overall.

https://www.greatschools.org/

https://www.niche.com/

https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/indiana/

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Size and Rank

• Fewer than 2000 students.
• Its high school ranked after 10,000^th nationally and ranked after 250^th in Indiana, according to US News.

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VS

WLCSC

Student Demographic

• This candidate’s district is very homogenous.
• Only 6% of the students are minority students.
• Almost no students are English learners.

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VS

WLCSC

Equality

• Equality score is 4 out of 10 too.
• College readiness for low-income students is lower than 40%.
• For all students is lower than 50%.

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VS

WLCSC

Advanced Courses

• Percent of students who participated in AP math is about 2%.
• Percent of students who participated in AP science is lower than 1%.
• Other AP course participation is about 5%.

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VS

WLCSC

Popular College

• Top 10 popular college does not include the best universities in the US that our students are interested, such as Umich, Northwestern, U Chicago, Stanford, and UC Berkeley.

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VS

WLCSC

Growth and Evaluation

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Everyone can learn and can improve!

• The candidate is experienced and doing well in the current district.
• The candidate’s current district is vastly different from ours, so the candidate has to learn how to address many of our issues.
• The candidate does not have a specific plan yet for many challenges that we are facing.
• The candidate can learn in our community and eventually meet the needs of our students with diverse backgrounds and diverse needs.

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Questions about the Contract

• What is the appropriate compensation for the candidate at this time?
• Should we start with a fair market salary (e.g., 145K) and leave room for a raise after the candidate well meet the needs of our district? To provide incentive and meanwhile control budget.
• Should we remove the automatic pay raise every year? – Our hardworking but underpaid teachers are not promised one. (Although our district ranks the top 1 or 2 in Indiana, our teachers’ average salary ranked only 14th for last school year, according to Journal and Courier on .)

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Evaluation Criteria

• Satisfaction of various stakeholders
• Teachers
• Staff members
• Administrators
• Parents
• Students
• Taxpayers
• Important concerns
• Better teacher compensation/recognition
• Putting Happy Hollow building in a good use
• Referendum
• Increasing ADM
• Improving equity—closing the learning gaps
• Meeting diverse needs (special needs, disadvantaged group, and high ability)
• Building collaboration with neighboring districts and Purdue University
• Eliminating unnecessary spending to have a healthy budget, so that we can pay our teachers better.
• …

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Should we include the evaluation criteria in the contract?

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Contract Renewal

• How does it work?
• What are the criteria?
• When will it be renewed?
• How long will it be renewed every time?

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