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Saturday, February 16, 2008
GODLEY TO RETIRE...NOW IT’S GOLDEN HANDSHAKE TIME !
ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
a news service of Orange Net News /O/N/N/ Independent insight into OUSD
GODLEY TO RETIRE...
NOW IT’S GOLDEN HANDSHAKE TIME !
Two weeks after announcing at the February 7th Orange Unified School Board meeting that he will be retiring as of June 30, 2008, Orange Unified School Board Superintendent Thomas Godley’s administration will be presenting a Supplemental Retirement Plan to be voted on at the February 21, 2008 OUSD School Board meeting. The Supplemental Retirement Plan (commonly referred to as a “golden handshake”) is agenda Action Item 12c (page 11) and states:
“The plan provides an enhanced retirement benefit for those employees who elect to retire June 30th, 2008. the basic benefit is estimated to be 6.0 to 6.5% of the employees final salary schedule placement (depending on the final plan design) divided by 12 paid monthly for life.”
Sources close to the OUSD Administration report that the Supplemental Retirement Plan will be structured to award the lifetime 6 to 6.5% extra pay to any OUSD administrator or teacher who has been with the district for 5 years or more. At his retirement date in June, Godley will have been with the district just over 5 years.
Godley made his official announcement of his pending June 30, 2008 retirement in the Closed Session of the February 7th OUSD Board meeting. Less than an hour later in Open Session, Godley read from a prepared text outlining his retirement as a somber OUSD Board listened. The five member majority of the OUSD Board (known as the Godley Majority) that routinely heaped mounds of kudos on the Superintendent while giving him raise upon raise in the preceding months leading up to the retirement announcement was unusually quiet. Shortly after Godley’s announcement Trustee Kathy Moffat, one of Godley’s most outspoken supporters, excused herself from the meeting stating that she was ill.
With tension obviously high among the Board members, during the meeting’s Board Recognition of the Community segment, Godley nemesis Trustee Steve Rocco asked to speak and was quickly verbally trounced on by Board President Wes Poutsma and Trustee Kim Nichols who tried to deny Rocco a chance to speak on a procedural rule during a typical protracted Rocco introduction to his topic. However, the two trigger-happy trustees then had to eat crow as the often controversial Rocco this time only spoke about his attendance at the City of Santa Ana’s Martin Luther King Day parade celebrating Black History Month and encouraged all to attend the parade next year. The seemingly expected Rocco rubbing-of–the-salt-into-the-Godley’s-leaving-wound never materialized.
The next day Friday February 8th, Godley was previously scheduled to address a gathering of 140 Orange Unified teachers and administrators at the controversial William Daggett Consultant two-day teaching conference in San Diego (OUSD taxpayers footed the bill for over $20,000 on hotel rooms alone not counting conference fees, mileage and other costs, but that’s another story). At the early morning OUSD only meeting, Godley announced his retirement (the story had already been broken by Orange Net News the night before) and also announced the June retirement of OUSD Assistant Superintendent for Educational Services Dr. Ken Jones.
If approved by the OUSD Trustees this week, the “golden handshake” Supplemental Retirement Plan could add close to $15,000 a year to Godley’s retirement pay (at the 6% rate). In June 2006, Godley received a 4.75% retroactive raise. Then in August 2007 the next pay hike for Godley put his salary over $242,000 annually and included an unprecedented automatic 2% annual longevity raise, and a yearly $2500.00 bonus for having his doctorial degree, in addition that pay hike was also retroactive.
Next, the Godley Majority gave Godley a 3.5 % pay hike in the Superintendent’s salary with all other district administrators at the December 13th , 2007 Orange Unified School Board meeting just four months after the unprecedented pay hike to Godley’s contracted salary. That retroactive pay hike of 3.5% went to July 2007, one month before the August retroactive pay hike.
Then at the January 17th, 2008 meeting, Godley asked the OUSD Board to approve another .25% retroactive raise for the district administrators. The Godley Majority again voted to grant the raise. Following that raise at the last Board meeting Godley announced his retirement, now at this Thursday’s meeting the OUSD Administration will ask for the 6-6.5% “golden handshake” plan for this year’s retirees which if approved will give Godley another 6-6.5% lifetime pay hike for only five years of service to the Orange Unified School District.
Watch for the Orange Net News special news series called:
The Godley Years: From Good to Great?
Moffat Wrong Again
In December 2007 an indignant OUSD Trustee Kathy Moffat bristled at the fact local Villa Park citizens were tipped off to OUSD plans to demolish the historic landmark buildings at Villa Park Elementary School by “a blog”. As Moffat denied that OUSD intended to demolish the buildings, she announced “the blogs are wrong again”. Orange Net News quickly responded to Moffat’s misleading statements with an editorial: OUSD TRUSTEE KATHY MOFFAT WRONG AGAIN.
Now two months later the local print media is printing what Orange Net News first reported back in December, OUSD is planning to demolish the historic buildings. Will Moffat also announce to the community that the main stream media is wrong also?
To see the main stream media stories on VPES historic demolition CLICK ON:
OC REGISTER VPES and
OC REGISTER HISTORIC BUILDINGS
INSIDE the OUSD Budget
“We’re a $220 million dollar business; we’re going to spend the money somewhere.” -OUSD Trustee Wes Poutsma 9/22/05
INSIDE’s EDUCATIONAL
TAX DOLLARS WATCH 2008:$300,000 Total
2008 Attorney Fee Tally:
2/07/08 Parker & Covert $100,000
11/15/07 Parker & Covert (for 1/08 to 6/08) $200,000
$300,000
Total for Watched Tax Dollars approved in 2007: $704,090.00
2007 Consultant/ Speaker Fee Tally:
4/30/07 Debra Ford Speaker Fee $ 4,090
4/30/07 Danny Brassell Speaker Fee $ 3,500
3/8/07 Dr. Daggett Speaker Fee $ 9,000
9/27/07 Dr.Daggett Speaker Fee $ 35,000
11/15/07 OCDE High Priority Consultants $115,000
Total $166,590
2007 Attorney Fee Tally:
1/18/07 Parker & Covert (1/07 to 6/07) $175,000
(6/07-12/07) $200,000
2/08/07 Miller, Brown, and Dannis $ 7, 500
2/22/07 Parker & Covert $ 45,000
5/10/07 Miller, Brown and Dannis $ 50,000
7/19/07 Parker & Covert $ 60,000
Total $537,500
2007 Administrative Conference/Travel: hidden since 6/8/06*
*JUNE 8th, 2006 Trustees VOTE to Give OUSD Superintendent the power to APPROVE Travel Requests taking this item OUT of the PUBLIC AGENDA
Total for Watched Tax Dollars approved in 2006: $849,717.00*
2006 Consultant Fee Tally: Total $176,400
2006 Attorney Fee Tally: Total Approved $655,000
2006 Administrative Conference/Travel: Total $ 18,317 *
* JUNE 8th, 2006 Trustees VOTE to Give OUSD Superintendent the power to
APPROVE OUSD Travel Requests taking this item OUT of the PUBLIC AGENDATotal for Watched Tax Dollars approved in 2005: $978,300.00:
Total 2005 Conference Administrator/Board Fees: $ 7,500.00
2005 Attorney Fee Tally: $730,600.00
Total Watched 2005 OUSD Consultant spending: $ 270,200.00
Next OUSD Board Meeting
Thursday February 21, 2008. For more information
CLICK ON: BOARD AGENDA 2/21
OUSD CLOSED SESSION STARTS 6:30 PM ,
Regular Session: 7:30 pm
For more information call the OUSD Superintendent’s office at 714-628-4040
For budgeting questions call Business Services at 714-628-4015
ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
Independent insight into OUSD
is an independent news service of /O/N/N/
Orange_NetNews@yahoo.com
“Independent Local Insight”
Ecast on the
INTERNET COMMUNITY GROUP i/))) cg
A 21st Century Communications System
a news service of Orange Net News /O/N/N/ Independent insight into OUSD
GODLEY TO RETIRE...
NOW IT’S GOLDEN HANDSHAKE TIME !
Two weeks after announcing at the February 7th Orange Unified School Board meeting that he will be retiring as of June 30, 2008, Orange Unified School Board Superintendent Thomas Godley’s administration will be presenting a Supplemental Retirement Plan to be voted on at the February 21, 2008 OUSD School Board meeting. The Supplemental Retirement Plan (commonly referred to as a “golden handshake”) is agenda Action Item 12c (page 11) and states:
“The plan provides an enhanced retirement benefit for those employees who elect to retire June 30th, 2008. the basic benefit is estimated to be 6.0 to 6.5% of the employees final salary schedule placement (depending on the final plan design) divided by 12 paid monthly for life.”
Sources close to the OUSD Administration report that the Supplemental Retirement Plan will be structured to award the lifetime 6 to 6.5% extra pay to any OUSD administrator or teacher who has been with the district for 5 years or more. At his retirement date in June, Godley will have been with the district just over 5 years.
Godley made his official announcement of his pending June 30, 2008 retirement in the Closed Session of the February 7th OUSD Board meeting. Less than an hour later in Open Session, Godley read from a prepared text outlining his retirement as a somber OUSD Board listened. The five member majority of the OUSD Board (known as the Godley Majority) that routinely heaped mounds of kudos on the Superintendent while giving him raise upon raise in the preceding months leading up to the retirement announcement was unusually quiet. Shortly after Godley’s announcement Trustee Kathy Moffat, one of Godley’s most outspoken supporters, excused herself from the meeting stating that she was ill.
With tension obviously high among the Board members, during the meeting’s Board Recognition of the Community segment, Godley nemesis Trustee Steve Rocco asked to speak and was quickly verbally trounced on by Board President Wes Poutsma and Trustee Kim Nichols who tried to deny Rocco a chance to speak on a procedural rule during a typical protracted Rocco introduction to his topic. However, the two trigger-happy trustees then had to eat crow as the often controversial Rocco this time only spoke about his attendance at the City of Santa Ana’s Martin Luther King Day parade celebrating Black History Month and encouraged all to attend the parade next year. The seemingly expected Rocco rubbing-of–the-salt-into-the-Godley’s-leaving-wound never materialized.
The next day Friday February 8th, Godley was previously scheduled to address a gathering of 140 Orange Unified teachers and administrators at the controversial William Daggett Consultant two-day teaching conference in San Diego (OUSD taxpayers footed the bill for over $20,000 on hotel rooms alone not counting conference fees, mileage and other costs, but that’s another story). At the early morning OUSD only meeting, Godley announced his retirement (the story had already been broken by Orange Net News the night before) and also announced the June retirement of OUSD Assistant Superintendent for Educational Services Dr. Ken Jones.
If approved by the OUSD Trustees this week, the “golden handshake” Supplemental Retirement Plan could add close to $15,000 a year to Godley’s retirement pay (at the 6% rate). In June 2006, Godley received a 4.75% retroactive raise. Then in August 2007 the next pay hike for Godley put his salary over $242,000 annually and included an unprecedented automatic 2% annual longevity raise, and a yearly $2500.00 bonus for having his doctorial degree, in addition that pay hike was also retroactive.
Next, the Godley Majority gave Godley a 3.5 % pay hike in the Superintendent’s salary with all other district administrators at the December 13th , 2007 Orange Unified School Board meeting just four months after the unprecedented pay hike to Godley’s contracted salary. That retroactive pay hike of 3.5% went to July 2007, one month before the August retroactive pay hike.
Then at the January 17th, 2008 meeting, Godley asked the OUSD Board to approve another .25% retroactive raise for the district administrators. The Godley Majority again voted to grant the raise. Following that raise at the last Board meeting Godley announced his retirement, now at this Thursday’s meeting the OUSD Administration will ask for the 6-6.5% “golden handshake” plan for this year’s retirees which if approved will give Godley another 6-6.5% lifetime pay hike for only five years of service to the Orange Unified School District.
Watch for the Orange Net News special news series called:
The Godley Years: From Good to Great?
Moffat Wrong Again
In December 2007 an indignant OUSD Trustee Kathy Moffat bristled at the fact local Villa Park citizens were tipped off to OUSD plans to demolish the historic landmark buildings at Villa Park Elementary School by “a blog”. As Moffat denied that OUSD intended to demolish the buildings, she announced “the blogs are wrong again”. Orange Net News quickly responded to Moffat’s misleading statements with an editorial: OUSD TRUSTEE KATHY MOFFAT WRONG AGAIN.
Now two months later the local print media is printing what Orange Net News first reported back in December, OUSD is planning to demolish the historic buildings. Will Moffat also announce to the community that the main stream media is wrong also?
To see the main stream media stories on VPES historic demolition CLICK ON:
OC REGISTER VPES and
OC REGISTER HISTORIC BUILDINGS
INSIDE the OUSD Budget
“We’re a $220 million dollar business; we’re going to spend the money somewhere.” -OUSD Trustee Wes Poutsma 9/22/05
INSIDE’s EDUCATIONAL
TAX DOLLARS WATCH 2008:$300,000 Total
2008 Attorney Fee Tally:
2/07/08 Parker & Covert $100,000
11/15/07 Parker & Covert (for 1/08 to 6/08) $200,000
$300,000
Total for Watched Tax Dollars approved in 2007: $704,090.00
2007 Consultant/ Speaker Fee Tally:
4/30/07 Debra Ford Speaker Fee $ 4,090
4/30/07 Danny Brassell Speaker Fee $ 3,500
3/8/07 Dr. Daggett Speaker Fee $ 9,000
9/27/07 Dr.Daggett Speaker Fee $ 35,000
11/15/07 OCDE High Priority Consultants $115,000
Total $166,590
2007 Attorney Fee Tally:
1/18/07 Parker & Covert (1/07 to 6/07) $175,000
(6/07-12/07) $200,000
2/08/07 Miller, Brown, and Dannis $ 7, 500
2/22/07 Parker & Covert $ 45,000
5/10/07 Miller, Brown and Dannis $ 50,000
7/19/07 Parker & Covert $ 60,000
Total $537,500
2007 Administrative Conference/Travel: hidden since 6/8/06*
*JUNE 8th, 2006 Trustees VOTE to Give OUSD Superintendent the power to APPROVE Travel Requests taking this item OUT of the PUBLIC AGENDA
Total for Watched Tax Dollars approved in 2006: $849,717.00*
2006 Consultant Fee Tally: Total $176,400
2006 Attorney Fee Tally: Total Approved $655,000
2006 Administrative Conference/Travel: Total $ 18,317 *
* JUNE 8th, 2006 Trustees VOTE to Give OUSD Superintendent the power to
APPROVE OUSD Travel Requests taking this item OUT of the PUBLIC AGENDATotal for Watched Tax Dollars approved in 2005: $978,300.00:
Total 2005 Conference Administrator/Board Fees: $ 7,500.00
2005 Attorney Fee Tally: $730,600.00
Total Watched 2005 OUSD Consultant spending: $ 270,200.00
Next OUSD Board Meeting
Thursday February 21, 2008. For more information
CLICK ON: BOARD AGENDA 2/21
OUSD CLOSED SESSION STARTS 6:30 PM ,
Regular Session: 7:30 pm
For more information call the OUSD Superintendent’s office at 714-628-4040
For budgeting questions call Business Services at 714-628-4015
ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
Independent insight into OUSD
is an independent news service of /O/N/N/
Orange_NetNews@yahoo.com
“Independent Local Insight”
Ecast on the
INTERNET COMMUNITY GROUP i/))) cg
A 21st Century Communications System
