Incorrect article

There was an article in last week’s paper that was untrue and unfounded. I would like to hold the person responsible for their ignorance of the situation. Also, I would like to hold the Hazard Herald responsible for the publication of the article, without knowing the facts.

Tommy Williams

Hazard, Ky.

Persistently Low-Achieving School Board?

At Thursday night’s regular meeting of Perry School Board, Superintendent John Paul Amis announced that certified personnel would be receiving no raise for the upcoming 2012-2013 school year. A one-percent raise for certified personnel would cost $200,000 and presently was not doable, he declared. The board was non-responsive when asked if Mr. Amis had been asked to forego his raises. The superintendent’s contract stipulates that he receive:

1. a 2.5 percent cost-of-living increase.

2. all monies paid to the Kentucky Teacher’s Retirement System reimbursed to the superintendent.

3. matching up to 5 percent of his salary in a tax-sheltered annuity.

4. major medical to include health and hospitalization, disability insurance, and a whole-life insurance policy at least four times his annual salary (with money accumulated in that policy becoming his when no longer employed by the board.)

5. Enhanced family health and dental insurance plan.

We the taxpayer, pay all the above, including any taxes on any of the above other than base salary. At last month’s meeting I submitted a request for an itemized statement detailing all monies the superintendent receives for the above. I was refused that information. The contrast is stark. Unlike Mr. Amis, teachers get no raise, pay their own retirement, buy their own hospitalization, health, dental, and life insurance, receive no matching annuity funds, and pay their own taxes, not to mention paying their own attorney if sued by the board.

Obviously, not a good time for the district leader to admit to the existence of the above terms, but the language is clear. That four-year contract began July 1, 2006, and is currently set to expire in 2016, honoring the above terms for at least four more years. Interestingly, in the face of discussion of no teacher raises, not a board member challenged the cushy terms of the superintendent’s contract when it was brought up.

Perry Central High School, visible from the superintendent’s office window, is now labeled PLA (Persistently Low-Achieving), with the three-year state-management program under the KDE-selected principal beginning July 1. Parting thoughts: Who is really Persistently Low-Achieving? How do we justify the huge discrepancy in pay and benefits between the hard-working teachers and the failed, incompetent Superintendent Amis? How do we correct it?

Eddie N. Campbell,

Lost Creek, Ky.