Williamsville, NY (WBEN) Many parents in the Williamsville School District are not happy with the board's decision Tuesday to raise to $230,000 the salary of Acting Superintendent Dr. John McKenna. The school board president says the raise was justified.
During Tuesday's meeting, Darlene McClay expressed her unhappiness about the raise. "What experience does he have that he deserves to be paid the highest in the suburbs," asked McClay. "Individuals are hired and paid commensurate with experience and performance. I would think as assistant superintendent of HR he would be aware of this."
Williamsville Mayor Deb Rogers has a child who attends Williamsville Schools. She says considering the increasing costs her village has seen because of CoVID19, now isn't the right time. "From just being conservative with that kind of salary, I think until the district decides what they're going to do in the case of Dr. (Scott) Martzloff, offering the raise is not the best move at this time," says Rogers. "The district is also facing additional costs, and the money could be used toward those costs as opposed to an additional salary hike." Rogers says she is glad her child can attend classes in person two times a week now.
"We did this because he's filling in as acting superintendent, which has much larger responsibilities than that for assistant superintendent for HR," explains school board president Teresa Leatherbarrow. "While he's fulfilling that role, he's also going to be doing many of his responsibilities as assistant superintendent of HR. He's essentially on leave from his position while working as acting superintendent." Leatherbarrow says the assistant superintendent position is not going to be filled.
Martzloff remains on administrative leave as superintendent and remains on the payroll under there is a resolution according to Leatherbarrow.
