Union 90 rejects raise for superintendent

ALTON – The request for an adjustment to the superintendent’s compensation package was voted down Wednesday by Union 90 school board members.

Rumors about the issue have circulated, and Superintendent Mike Cyr said Friday he wanted to make it clear that although he requested that his compensation package and salary be reviewed and adjusted if possible, he didn’t request a specific raise amount.

“This came not from me, but from them,” Cyr said. “It was an effort by the executive committee to prepare to have a competitive package for the incoming superintendent as well.”

Union 90 comprises Alton, Bradley, Milford and Greenbush. Each town’s individual school boards make up the Union 90 joint school board. The executive committee is composed of the chairpersons from each board.

Cyr plans to resign June 31, 2006, which he said has been his intention since accepting the superintendent position.

Cyr’s salary is $86,000 a year, and because he is included in his wife’s health insurance plan, he doesn’t have a benefits package through Union 90. But unlike the teachers, Cyr doesn’t receive the $1,800 bonus given if they don’t participate in the health insurance program.

“Basically I was asking for some of those things like that,” Cyr said. “The whole package is basically just my salary.”

The superintendent said he normally leaves when issues such as this are discussed, but the board said they wanted him to stay during Wednesday night’s executive session to talk about Cyr’s contract before holding a vote.

The executive committee met and came up with an offer for Cyr that they carried to the Union 90 joint school board.

“It was supposed to be in confidence,” Cyr said. “The board chairs went to each of their boards and explained what they had done so that no one was blindsided by this. Somebody shared the information that was in executive session with the public.”

That’s where the rumors came from, Cyr said. Some of those rumors were that Cyr was resigning or had asked for a $10,000 or more raise.

When Cyr began receiving inquiries about the issue, he said he could have shared information, but said, “I’m not going to have an offer provided to me in confidence on the street.”

In addition, teachers said the emergency school closing telephone tree was activated Thursday night to inform them that the board decided not to make changes to Cyr’s salary and benefits package.

Cyr said Friday he didn’t call anyone to activate the phone tree.

“What would be the purpose?” he said. “I’m not here to garner a popularity contest. I’m operating an $11 million business.”

Cyr noted that the only information he had provided the executive committee was about the salaries and benefits packages of other superintendents in the area.

“I’m getting paid basically the wage of a high school principal as a total package,” Cyr said.

But the superintendent noted he’s not upset that the board voted – by a single vote – not to adjust his salary and benefits package.

“It is what it is,” Cyr said. “I’m not bitter in that they chose not to support it, but it is their proposal; it was not mine.”

Cyr has been a superintendent for 14 years and has worked in public education for 37 years.

“I like my job and like what I’m doing,” Cyr said. “My role is at the end of the year I leave, and I’ve done the best I could with the resources I have.”