Auburn school board makes another bad choice

Thursday, July 26, 2007 9:58 AM EDT

Re: Auburn School Board, Pabis, etc.
To paraphrase something we read lately - anyone searching for the highest forms of invertebrate life need look no further than the overwhelming majority of members of the Auburn School Board.

First, it's their “damn the taxpayers” attitude, arrogant and stupid - yes, stupid - offer of $150,000 as the starting salary of the next superintendent.

Especially so, since the outgoing Superintendent John Plume's salary, after being in the job since 2001, is $147,087.

Since when does a fiscally responsible public organization start someone off at the high end of the salary range?

Oops, we forgot. Fiscal responsibility and the Auburn School Board are mutually exclusive, aren't they?

Secondly, their unanimous knighting of Joseph D. Pabis as the new superintendent, who was John Plume's right-hand man and is making a paltry $115,000 before this $35,000 raise.

It was under this dual leadership that the state determined, according to Plume, “Auburn High School has been deemed a school ‘Requiring Academic Progress.' The entire district has been designated as a district in need of improvement, one of 18 small-city school districts in the state to receive that designation.” Nice going, guys!

So that's why the school board offered Mr. Pabis $150,000. I see.

But before this in-lockstep body of board members chose Mr. Pabis, they did a search and interviewed - I assume - the other 11 qualified applicants. However, it “appears” that the fix was on and we know the rest of the story, don't we?

By the way, how much did this “for show” superintendent search cost us taxpayers, anyway?

So now we not only have the village of Groton polluting Owasco Lake with phosphorus, but we also have Mr. Pabis, who lives in Groton, that will be beating the same drum as before and most likely, unresponsive to our school district's needs.

Does anyone believe that Mr. Pabis will truly come up with a truly fiscally responsible school budget or remediation program if he doesn't live here -- and why isn't he required to? Or pay any of our Auburn school taxes?

Maybe - just maybe - the Board will tighten up his lucrative contract by requiring him to live in Auburn? Hey, you never know?

It's your money.

Bill Balyszak

Auburn

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