Board takes no action on raises

By Emily Richmond

Friday, Feb. 6, 2004 | 10:16 a.m.

The Clark County School Board met for 2 1/2 hours Thursday to discuss Superintendent Carlos Garcia's independent decision to give two top administrators 10 percent raises but concluded the session without taking any disciplinary action.

The news last week of Garcia's decision to give the raises to Agustin Orci, deputy superintendent of instruction, and district legal counsel Bill Hoffman sparked a flurry of public criticism. Several School Board members said they knew the raises were forthcoming while others said they were taken aback by the move.

The School Board, at the urging of member Shirley Barber, conducted a special meeting Thursday to discuss whether Garcia had overstepped his authority or ignored regulations that require him to keep members informed of his decisions.

District regulations give Garcia the authority to reclassify certain employees and increase their pay scale. The raises, given last month and retroactive to July, were intended to bring parity to pay for top district deputies, Garcia said.

Walt Rulffes, deputy superintendent of operations, received a large raise three years ago when he was being courted by other districts, Garcia said.

"I told (board members) then we would have to bring up the pay for the others down the road, but I should have done a much better job notifying them that the time was at hand," Garcia said after the closed session. "I told them that I was sorry and and they accepted that."

Lester Lewis, whose children attend Clark County schools, told the School Board he was more upset at how the raises were handled than by the amounts.

Such incidents hurt the district's public image and hamper the chances of winning additional funding from the next Legislature, Lewis said.

"It looks like you're being fiscally irresponsible ... whether that's the case or not," Lewis said during the public comment portion of the meeting.

Ryan Devins, also a Clark County parent, said he was angry that two employees already earning over $100,000 received substantial raises while the district's teachers must make do with 2 percent increases for each of the next two years.

"If the teachers' union came in here and asked for 10 percent, they would be laughed right out of the building," Devins said. "What kind of message does that send? Does the board not really care about the teachers?"

Member Sheila Moulton noted that the district had fought unsuccessfully during the last legislative session to secure 10 percent pay hikes over two years for its teachers. Substitute teachers in the district received a 10 percent salary increase this year, going from $80 to $90 per day, Moulton said.

"We had a lot of questions that were answered," said member Denise Brodsky. "We're going to have slips along the way, but the important thing is that we come right back and work collectively. We need to do a better job communicating, we all do."

Barber, who said last week she believed Garcia should have informed the entire board about the raises ahead of time, called the closed session "very helpful." Barber said she believed the School Board and the superintendent would all do a better job communicating in the future.

"I personally felt like I was not part of the team," Barber said. "We need to work as a team. We set the climate, it starts with us, the board and goes to the superintendent and all the way down to the school. And we want a positive climate."

Hoffman's salary increased to $123,456 annually while Orci's salary rose to $132,424. The retroactive portion of the raises was about $6,000 for Orci and $5,700 for Hoffman.

Rulffes earns $137,150 annually while Garcia's salary is $212,242.

The salaries for Rulffes and Garcia both reflect the 2 percent pay hikes negotiated for all of the district's administrators by the union. Hoffman and Orci, because of their status as "confidential" employees who serve on the district's negotiating team, are exempt from the pay scales set during bargaining sessions.