Accumulation vs. Pro-Rated
Mr. El Fattal said that erroneous conclusions also were reached regarding compensation for vacation and sick days for Ms. McGaughey. Mr. Laase wrote that by working one month into a new fiscal year, Ms. McGaughey became eligible to accrue 25 more working days of vacation (worth $17,185). Mr. El Fattal said that instead of qualifying for a years worth of vacation days, Ms. McGaughey was eligible the monthly average of 2 days of vacation. Because she worked here and provided service to the District for July, he said, she received pay for 2 days of vacation. Mr. El Fattal said a similar pro-rated of formula applied to sick leave. Mr. Laase reported that Ms. McGaugheys contract entitled her to 12 days of sick leave for a year, worth $8,250. Mr. El Fattal said that she only would have qualified for one months worth, or 1 day of sick leave instead of the cumulative 12 days. She didnt use it, Mr. El Fattal said. We dont pay for unused sick leave. Unused sick leave may or may not be used by the State Teacher Retirement System in calculating someones unemployment. Mr. El Fattal said that it was wrong of the reporter to claim the School Board violated its own provision by extending Ms. McGaugheys contract by 2 years instead of 1 year in 2005. In the contract itself, the contract can be changed as long as it is mutually agreeable by both parties, the assistant superintendent said. So there was no violation by the School Board. Regarding health care insurance a tender subject in recent years in the School District Mr. El Fattal said that all employees with a minimum of 10 years seniority receive what is called lifetime health care benefits until they are 65. Then it kicks into Medicare. The superintendents contract is slightly different for any superintendent who has been here for the last 30 years, she has her choice. She is fully paid, 100 percent, for health care benefits, based on whichever option is available. The concept really is very similar to all other employees in the District.
Postscript
In summation, Mr. El Fattal said that the story was filled with inaccurate statements because of fallacious assumptions in the first place. As for Ms. McGaughey herself, criticism rained down on the School District last spring when Ms. McGaughey won a retroactive $31,000 raise just weeks after announcing in April she was retiring at the end of July. Until she received that raise, said Interim Supt. Dr. Diane Fiello, her total package salary and benefits was the lowest of any unified superintendent in Los Angeles County. That reclassification still left her in the lower half of the County. It is such a moot point to argue whether she should have received this or that. She worked for 9 years as the lowest-paid superintendent in the County. I dont understand why anyone would deny a hard-working superintendent fair pay. In the end, she still didnt really get fair pay.
