ORANGE : Transit Stipend for School Officials OKd
The Orange Unified School District Board of Education has voted 5 to 2 to continue paying eight top-level staff members $300 monthly transportation allowances.
“You can easily cover great distances in a district of this size,” said interim Supt. Marilyn Corey, “and keeping mileage counts is cumbersome.”
But board members Barry Resnick and Robert H. Viviano said before the vote Thursday that they could not support paying $2,400 per month to top management staff.
Resnick said the Internal Revenue Service allows the district to pay a 28-cents-per-mile driving allowance to employees, which means the district is assuming that each of the eight staff members is driving more than 1,000 miles a month on official business.
“I can’t believe anyone is driving like that,” Resnick said.
Staff members who get the transportation allowance include the directors of instruction, pupil services and facility planning, and some school principals.
“Principals are involved in going to all kinds of athletic events and they often travel great miles,” Corey said.
Corey’s contract with the district gives her a transportation allowance based on miles actually driven.
The Orange Unified School District encompasses the cities of Orange and Villa Park and parts of Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Anaheim.
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