The Contra Costa Times, September 15, 2006

Unfortunately, the Antioch School Board granted her an overly generous salary, perk and benefit package. Board President Bart Sandborn justified her $172,500 base salary by stating that such a salary was necessary to attract competitive candidates and that it was below that of the Mt. Diablo school district, which has approximately 36,000 students and whose superintendent earns about $180,000.

I don't buy his arguments. Since Antioch has about 21,000 students, perhaps Sims' salary should have been one-third less than that of the MDUSD superintendent. The board also gifted her with $3,000 for relocation expenses although she's only moving from San Francisco, which is in commuter range and wouldn't qualify as a job relocation expense under IRS rules. In addition, she will be given a laptop computer, printer/fax machine, cell phone, $8,400 for her professional membership dues, a tax-sheltered annuity, a generous paid vacation, and health insurance for up to 18 months should she decide to leave.

If terminated by the board, she'll get paid the amount she would have earned in the final 18 months of the contract or the total amount due, whichever is less. AUSD School Superintendent Dennis Goettsch, who recently decided to retire, was hired at a base salary of $144,788 vs. his predecessor's salary of $124,000. Ironically, Goettsch was recently praised by one of our school board members for having gotten the district back on a sound financial footing. During his tenure, however, the AUSD was taken to task by the grand jury for poor financial management and Goettsch publicly admitted the district had dipped into ADA (average daily attendance) money to pay for a 12-percent wage increase for all staff, retroactive to July 2000 and spent "one-time" money that would not be available in 2001 and 2002 for contractual increases.

Shortly thereafter, auditors discovered a series of accounting errors: the first totaling $3.3 million and the second totaling $2.5 million ("one-time" funding that was initially included in projected revenues for the 2004-05 budget years).

Inaccurate enrollment projections also contributed to the district's ongoing financial difficulties. Antioch, however, wasn't the only district that had problems during this time.

Sims' former district did, too. According to the Pacific Research Institute, California's 2001 system of education funding was rife with waste, a convoluted system driving up administrative costs, diverting attention from educational concerns and depriving the public of readily accessible, comparative information.

Highlighted in their report was the San Francisco Unified School District, which at that time had a student population of approximately 64,000 attending 115 schools and an annual budget of nearly $500 million. The district had raised $337 million through four voter-approved bond and tax measures during a 13-year period, but the way the district spent the money, was a classic example of waste and irresponsibility.

Arlene Ackerman, SFSD superintendent, who conceded that the district's internal control structure was deficient and the district's finances were in chaos, however, was urging yet another bond issue to fix the problem.

What the current AUSD board and the one that will be seated after the November election needs to comprehend is that when superintendents get artificially high salary packages, their wage "pulls along" other district salaries when contract time rolls around.

Public interest is forgotten as are our children who are currently receiving an inferior education; the district's recent Star scores were appalling. Only Oakland, John Sweet, Pittsburg, West Contra Costa and Vallejo scores were worse when it came to English; only Oakland, Pittsburg, West Contra Costa and Vallejo were worse in math. Two-thirds of Antioch's 24 schools have now been cited by the state for a failure to make adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law!

Residents who want to know "where the buck rests" need to monitor the district's Web site at www.antioch.k12.ca.us.

Barbara Zivical is a longtime resident of Antioch and a local government watchdog. You can e-mail her at BZ2@att.net. The opinions in this column are those solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the newspaper.