Mystic Valley teacher pay below state average; staff youth, experience cited - The Boston Globe

In today's Boston Globe - Article by Brenda Buoute and Top 50 Ssalaries @ MVRCS

Mystic Valley teacher pay below state average; staff youth, experience cited - The Boston Globe

Top 50 Salaries at MVRCS - The Boston Globe

Mystic Valley lags state pay norm

Director says pay still competitive

By Brenda J. Buote Globe Correspondent / October 24, 2010

At Mystic Valley Regional Charter School in Malden, only three employees earned six-figure salaries last year, and most staff members earned less than half of school director Joseph McCleary’s $166,332 paycheck, according to records released to the Globe.

The average salary for teachers who were among the top 50 earners in 2009 was $50,853, well below the statewide average of $64,166 earned by public school teachers for the 2007-2008 school year, the last year for which Massachusetts figures are available.

Mystic Valley administrators topped the pay list, including assistant director Chris Finn, who earned $113,001 in 2009, and business manager Richard Veilleux, $106,650. McCleary’s 2009 earnings included compensation for moving from Maryland in 2007 to lead the charter school, which has about 1,400 students from Malden, Medford, Melrose, Everett, Stoneham, and Wakefield.

Others in the top 50 earners were two relatives of Malden City Councilor Neil Kinnon, who serves as chairman of the school’s board of trustees, an unpaid position. Neil Kinnon’s brother Greg earned $53,656 in 2009 for his work as facilities manager and nurse. Kathy Kinnon, Neil Kinnon’s sister-in-law, earned $84,658 as special education director, an increase of about 9 percent over 2008, when she earned $77,187.

School officials said Kathy Kinnon’s salary for 2009 included a $1,000 “stay bonus,’’ similar to the pay raises mandated by general public schools in their stepladder approach to determining salaries; a one-time salary increase to ensure Kinnon’s compensation remained competitive with the charter school’s sending districts; and a $3,000 stipend for serving as administrative secretary to the school’s swim team.

Open Meeting Reports Anyone?

     We feel all parents and members of the MVRCS community, as permissible by law, are entitled to view a copy of the minutes from both the Open & Executive session meetings. We have been working towards obtaining them but have hit a road block as the school has refused to turn release the Executive Session minutes stating that they are protected from publishing. We go into the law that they are basing their actions on but feel that the minutes should be reviewed by the Attorney General to ensure that they not only exist but that the discussions are refined to the subject matters permissible under the Executive Session laws. We feel that this would be best obtained by having numerous parents make the request and go through the progress so that the matter receives the attention we feel it deserves. If you would be interested and willing to file a complaint, please see below for the required steps.
    Under Mass State laws, the school is required to keep minutes on both the open portion of the meeting, as well as the Executive Sessions.Individuals may request a copy of both minutes and the school must provide them within 10 days with the exception of portions of the Executive Session "may be withheld from disclosure to the public in their entirety.....defeat the lawful purposes of the executive session, but no longer" (see actual law below). Additionally, the Board may only enter into Executive session under a very limited number of certain circumstances (i.e. to discuss specific issues). We have included a list of these ten purposes along with the law in its entirety further down within this post.
       That being said, we have been volleying back and forth with Rick Veilleux from the school regarding getting copies of the minutes from not just the last meeting, but from the last 6 meetings. The school has chosen to require us to pay .20 per page for a copy of these minutes (which  is permissible by law) and that we are willing to pay for. We are unaware and unable to locate Agenda's for past meetings (they are not posted online as this one was) but apparently they do exist.  We do have a copy of the Agenda from the September 15, meeting and it reads as follows regarding the Executive Session: