Tensions Flare over Educators' Vacation Time

Cobb County Schools Superintendent Fred Sanderson’s comment seemed to go unnoticed during last Friday’s hot debate over eliminating administrators' payouts for unused vacation when they leave the school district.

“I think you’re talking about only a 1 percent part of the budget,” he said.

New Board of Education Chairwoman Alison Bartlett, whose Post 7 includes Osborne High, started the discussion during the board's work session by asking the district’s chief financial officer, Mike Addison, what the cost for accrued vacation time would be if all of the district’s eligible employees retired in June. Addison said it would be $7.1 million for 1,500 employees.

“I see this as a liability as it comes out of the general fund,” said Bartlett, who previously said some district employees were leaving with more than $20,000 for accrued vacation payouts.

Cobb school employees are allowed to carry over half their earned vacation time each year, and they are entitled to a payment for the accrued time when they retire.

Addison confirmed Sanderson’s 1 percent statement during one of the eight-hour meeting’s breaks. But he said the actual payout was far less than 1 percent of the district’s $819 million 2011 budget.

“The actual payout for vacation accrual each year is approximately 0.1 percent of the general fund budget,” he said.

Addison said about 150 people took a vacation payout on leaving the school system last year, and they averaged a little more than $4,000 each.

Post 1 member Lynnda Crowder-Eagle, the previous board chairwoman, asked Bartlett why she's so concerned about vacation payouts for nonteachers who have 180-day contracts.

“Is this your concern, or is it yours with your three new board members?” Crowder-Eagle asked, referring to Scott Sweeney, Kathleen Angelucci and Tim Stultz.

“It’s my concern,” said Bartlett, who said she wants the issue addressed before a new superintendent arrives and before 2012 budget discussions begin.

Crowder-Eagle, whose district includes Allatoona, Hillgrove, Harrison and Kennesaw Mountain high schools, said she is most concerned about the morale of administrators.

“I would rather my child’s administrator be at school than absent,” she said. “I see this as part of our incentive package, and this makes us more competitive. Fulton County pays more now. Don’t think that Fulton and Douglas County aren’t trying to recruit from us. They are. I’d like our lawyer to research this and look at it from the five counties” in metro Atlanta.

Sanderson later said all five have a vacation accrual policy.

“I have no interest in principals being out of the building when students are there,” he said. He supported modifying the policy but not adopting a use-it-or-lose-it approach.

“We know people are looking next door more than they ever have,” he added.

Board member David Banks, whose Post 5 covers Lassiter, Pope and Sprayberry high schools, wondered why an issue that was discussed and left unchanged last year had resurfaced. He concluded Bartlett’s reason was “sinister”: a way for her to get back at administrators for supporting the balanced school calendar.

After dismissing the “sinister” assertion, Angelucci, whose Post 4 covers Kell and North Cobb high schools, called the payouts for vacation accrual a “perk.” Banks interrupted Angelucci, blurting out, “It’s a benefit.”

Stultz, whose Post 2 includes Campbell High and the H.A.V.E.N. Academy along with a combined 11 Smyrna middle and elementary schools, brought calm to the discussion when he said that eliminating the payouts could bring long-term benefits.

Board member David Morgan, whose Post 3 cover McEachern, Pebblebrook and South Cobb high schools, was concerned that $7.1 million might have to be taken from elsewhere in the budget to cover the payouts.

Addison reassured Morgan that has never happened: “We’ve always had that money budgeted."

“It’s costing us money to budget for those employees,” Bartlett said. “I recognize the principals aren’t getting paid enough. It stunned me how many people aren’t taking vacation. It’s not healthy. If you’re not taking vacations, you’re not relieving your mind. A healthy mind is relaxing.”

Post 6's Sweeney, representing Walton and Wheeler high schools, said the corporate world has a use-it-or-lose-it policy for vacations. That prompted Crowder-Eagle to tell Bartlett, “It looks like you got your four votes.”

Crowder-Eagle later said: “This is a very bad decision. Look at some of these high school principals. Some are there till 10 o’clock at night. This is not the corporate world. We need to look at the market analysis.”

Bartlett said the board will not vote on the vacation policy at its regular meeting Jan. 27.