Woah! What’s Hampton School Board up to?

The Hampton School Board has been in the news quite a bit lately. We have the board suing its former superintendent – and him counter-suing.

Then there’s the School Board attorney. Seems she is using a job offer from another school district to wrangle a new contract, not unusual by any means. What is unusual is that the board directed her to write her own contract! Seriously. Now, if you were writing your own contract, what would you ask for?

In this case, the attorney asked for – and received – a 15% contribution to a retirement annuity, worth a little over $15,000.  Instead of a new contract, this is an amendment to her old letter of employment, which previously included a 3.5% contribution. Oh yeah – and a $7,000 per year car allowance.

This is at a time when the school board just cut $25 million from its budget in March. Included in that budget was a pay cut of .8 percent, effective July 1, for district employees, including the attorney, and 1.6% for top administrators.  The attorney certainly more than made up for that, didn’t she?

I’m thinking I need a new graphic – the fleecing of Hampton.