OAK PARK : Union Protests Pay Raise for Official

A proposal by the Oak Park Unified School District to give a $9,000 raise to a district administrator has touched off a protest from the local union for maintenance workers, secretaries and other non-teaching employees.

The school board tonight will consider a proposal to promote Director of Administrative Services Stan Mantooth to the newly created post of assistant superintendent, increasing Mantooth’s annual salary from $63,050 to $72,000. The board will meet at 8 p.m. at its district offices, 5801 Conifer St.

The president of the district’s union for non-teaching employees has written a letter to Supt. Susan Hearn protesting that the district should not grant such a salary increase at a time when it faces possible funding cuts from the state.

“This just seems totally inappropriate at this time,” said Jim Long, president of the union, which represents about 75 employees.

In addition, Long said, it would be unfair to increase administrators’ salaries because non-teaching employees do not get full medical benefits.

A district personnel official said that non-teaching employees have to help pay for their medical insurance to extend coverage to their children. The monthly payments range from $33.15 to $273.03. But Hearn defended the proposed salary increase for Mantooth, who serves as second-in-command to the superintendent.

When Hearn announced she would resign later this year, she learned that Mantooth was also considering moving to another district as assistant superintendent. “It would be a crime for this district to lose both” its top administrators at one time, Hearn said.

The promotion and salary increase are “a way of keeping him and rewarding him for the work that he’s done” in his three years with the district, Hearn said. The $9,000 increase was necessary to put Mantooth’s salary higher than the $70,000 earned annually by the principal of Oak Park High School, she said. She said it is standard policy for high-level administrators to earn more than principals.