June 06, 2008 04:00 am
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Attorney General Andrew Cuomo seems to believe he's onto something big, with his campaign against retired school workers being hired to temporary jobs at big per-diem pay. If this campaign is aimed at retired school superintendents being hired temporarily to fill in while a district searches for a permanent superintendent, who would he prefer take those jobs instead?
Cuomo cited cases in which six-figure retirees were taking temporary positions with school districts and simultaneously earning another six-figure wage.
The North Country has been the scene of that kind of situation, though the number of figures in the salary and/or wage have varied. The fact is that several retired administrators have been hired to see a district through gaps in leadership left when superintendents have retired or left for other jobs. Among them were John Gallagher of Plattsburgh and Michael Derrigo of Saranac, and the districts that hired them for temporary duty were mighty glad to have them.
The question is, who would you want to help run your district when you are without a full-time, permanent superintendent -- someone who knows the job or a novice?
In a news release, Cuomo called this practice "double dipping." While double dipping sounds underhanded, in some cases it isn't. When Willsboro Central School needed a fill-in superintendent, it hired Gallagher, retired as principal at Plattsburgh High School. Gallagher had long experience in the job and proved to be the perfect bridge to a new administrator for Willsboro. Should the district have settled for any less just because Gallagher was already drawing his retirement?
Or should Gallagher have been expected to take on that mountainous responsibility for free, so as not to double dip? If he forsook his retirement or declined a wage from Willsboro, that's what he'd have had to do. Who would presume to suggest he should give up his retirement leisure to return to the grind and not be compensated for it?
"New Yorkers need to know that their tax dollars are not being wasted on state benefits for those who do not deserve them," Cuomo said in his release.
These retired administrators do deserve them. And, if they are doing a specific job for that district or another, they deserve to be paid for that, in addition to their retirement.
The tone of the news release indicates that Cuomo apparently is on the lookout for fraud -- districts that intentionally hire retirees who are drawing benefits specifically to give them the chance to collect twice. If people such as Gallagher and Derrigo are caught in the cross-fire, however, the outcome would be detrimental to education.
Some retirees are filling in at crucial spots in school districts locally and elsewhere. Without them, the districts would be seriously compromised. And they shouldn't expect to provide these services for nothing.
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