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Columbus now state's biggest school district: Enrollment exceeds Cleveland's by 129(Columbus Dispatch (Ohio) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Aug. 16--Columbus schools Superintendent Gene Harris now heads the largest school system in Ohio, but her base salary lags far behind the new head of the No. 2 district, Cleveland. Columbus Public Schools had 57,827 students last school year, which put it 129 students ahead of Cleveland. Columbus was able to become the largest district despite having lost 5,800 students, or about 9 percent of its enrollment, since 2000-01. Cleveland's enrollment, meanwhile, has plunged by more than 20,000 students since the 1999-2000 school year, when its student body was 23 percent larger than Columbus'. Informed that Columbus was now the largest district in the state, a surprised school board member Jeff Cabot, chairman of the board finance committee, replied: "Oh man, we're going to have to give the superintendent a raise. The second-largest superintendent in the state is now making a whole lot more money than she is." Harris has an annual base salary of $161,132, while Eugene Sanders, who took over Cleveland schools July 1, makes $260,000 a year. "That really has no bearing for me," Harris said of Columbus being the No. 1 district. "It doesn't get me any additional resources or anything." Asked whether her contract provided for a raise if she headed the state's largest district, Harris laughed and said, "I don't think so." Harris' contract does provide her with a $300,000 life-insurance policy; a $6,000-a-year car allowance; a $6,000-a-year expense account; $1,125 a month for a tax-sheltered annuity; 25 vacation days; three personal days; and all holidays granted to other district employees. Last month, the board added a provision to Harris' contract that will allow her to begin collecting annual cash performance bonuses by the end of next school year. The amounts haven't been determined. Sanders' contract doesn't include performance bonuses. Also yesterday, the board approved refinancing $356.5 million in school-construction bonds. The move would close most of an $8.2 million shortfall on making $34.3 million in interest and principal payments to the holders of school-construction bonds. The shortfall is the result of a mistake by the Franklin County auditor's office, which set the district's millage too low, and the school board's borrowing of $5.58 million from the bond fund in June 2005 to help bail out its then-bankrupt self-insurance fund. [email protected] Copyright (c) 2006, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |