Vallas Philadelphia contract now a model for urban school systems' 'CEOs'
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported May 24 on the contract of the new ‘CEO’ of Philadelphia schools, as well as on the pay and perks of the former CEU, Paul Vallas.
According to the story, the Vallas contract is now a model for the contracts of “CEOs” of large urban school districts.
Arlene Ackerman takes her post as CEO of the district June 1, Schools CEO to earn up to $500,000 a year (By Kristen A. Graham, Inquirer Staff Writer) appeared in the May 24, 2008 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer:
The ink is dry and the details finalized — incoming Philadelphia schools chief Arlene Ackerman will earn a package worth up to $500,000 annually in salary and perks, a review of her contract shows.
Ackerman, who starts June 1, will receive $325,000 in base salary, but counting bonuses, life insurance and pension, the total deal could net her $494,333 per year.
That figure includes up to $65,000 as a bonus for hitting performance goals. If she stays through June 2011, she earns an extra $100,000.
Her five-year package is in line with that of former CEO Paul Vallas, who left Philadelphia last year to head the New Orleans Recovery school district.
Vallas earned a base salary of $275,000 the year he left, but his perks brought the total package up to $516,869 for one year, slightly more than the $494,333 Ackerman could earn if she hits all her performance goals in her first year.
Ackerman gets the same health insurance as other district managers and raises equal to those given to district teachers, as negotiated by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.
She gets 34 days of vacation, a handful more than Vallas, and she can trade up to four days for cash every year. Ackerman can roll over up to 60 vacation days and will get paid for any unused vacation time when she leaves the district.
Also part of the deal are paid holidays and three personal days annually.
She gets a BlackBerry and a cell phone — Vallas had a cell phone and a “personal organizer” — plus a laptop, printer and fax machine for her use at home.
Both CEOs got cars as part of their deals. Vallas specified he wanted a Ford Crown Victoria, but Ackerman was OK with just “a late-model car or similar vehicle.”
The district also agreed to pay for Ackerman’s moving costs and the legal fees she incurred negotiating the contract, up to $15,000. It will also pay her dues for professional organizations such as the American Association of School Administrators and the Black School Educators, and pay for her expenses to attend those groups’ conferences.
Like Vallas, Ackerman is permitted to spend up to 30 days per year consulting for other organizations, as long as they don’t do business with the school district. She must use vacation days to complete that work, and must get the School Reform Commission’s approval to consult for groups other than school districts.
District officials yesterday released the contract, which was signed by Ackerman, commission chairwoman Sandra Dungee Glenn and district attorney Sherry Swirsky on May 6.
Ackerman comes to Philadelphia with experience running the San Francisco and Washington, D.C., school districts. She will run the eighth largest school system in the country, with 167,000 students in 281 schools.
[kgraham@phillynews.com.]
