Superintendent gets high praise — and a pay cut

SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield School Board has once again given Superintendent Nancy Golden a glowing annual performance review. The board has given Golden high marks in each of her eight year’s leading the school district.

But instead of asking for a raise, Golden has agreed to take a 2.4 percent salary cut.

Golden currently receives a salary of about $131,000 annually. That would drop 2.4 percent, to $127,851, for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Under her contract, Golden was due for a raise that would have boosted her salary to $134,580, the district said. Her salary for 2011-21 will be 5 percent less than that.

“We are so very lucky to have Nancy as our superintendent,” school board Chairman Garry Weber said in a news release. “She is a rock-solid example of Springfield Public Schools’ commitment to our students. Our school board was not surprised that, upon hearing of the sacrifices that the district’s employees made recently, Dr. Golden announced that she would take a voluntary 5 percent salary reduction.”

The school district’s three employee associations agreed to contract concessions on May 9 that total $3.1 million to help the district with its $8.3 million budget shortfall for the 2011-12 fiscal year.

Under the deal, all of the district’s 1,387 employees — both those represented by unions and those not represented by unions — agreed to give up any promised annual salary step increases and to give up any promised cost of living pay hikes; to keep the district’s monthly health insurance contributions at $990 per employee; and to suspend professional development funds usually made available to employees as part of existing contracts. Administrators also agree to take across-the-board 2 percent salary reductions.

The concessions include unpaid furlough days, but Golden will not take any unpaid furlough days in 2011-12, thus her proposal to take a salary decrease, district spokesman Jeff DeFranco said.

“It is all about shared sacrifice,” Golden said in the press release. “I believe strongly, as the leader, when there is a decrease in compensation for our employees, (my decrease) should be more.”

In its annual review of Golden, who agreed in January to serve a six-month term as Gov. John Kitzhaber’s education policy adviser, the school board cited her continued commitment on three goals the district identified last spring: student achievement, communication and upward advocacy.

The school board said Golden’s active involvement in the Springfield Education Foundation has helped it achieve its $150,000 fundraising goal for the year; that her leadership in increasing communication and feedback ensured that all community voices were heard during the process to close several district schools; that her ongoing presence and articulation of the district’s vision have been valuable in helping leverage community resources; and acknowledged that her state-level connections have helped the school district.