What the heck is wrong with the SAU 55 Board? What kind of mindless twits that have been so captured by “the professional” that they aren’t fulfilling their fiduciary responsibility to their voters / taxpayers. Imagine this, Superintendent Earl Metzler is already salaried at around $192,000/year. Almost anyone would consider that a fantastic salary – about 3-4 times the average of the taxpayers that pay his salary.
But NOOOOooooo, that’s not enough – he is “billing” the Board to compensate for his “extra time” – time that the Board didn’t approve (and its not in his contract). From the Eagle Tribune (reformatted, emphasis mine) that just about requires a fisking:
SAU 55 board addresses compensatory pay
Superintendent claims hostile work environment
PLAISTOW — The elephant in the room — School Administrative Unit 55 Superintendent Earl Metzler’s recent $92,364.22 compensatory buy out for the year of 2018/2019 — was the forefront of contentious conversation at the SAU meeting Wednesday night. “It’s what happens when you work seven days a week,” Metzler said, discussing that many board members would recall hearing from him on the weekends. “I’m not doing that now.”
Again, salaried is SALARIED – you aren’t paid by the hour, you aren’t limited to a strict 9-5 / 40-hour work week. Been there, done the 100-hour weeks before. But that was as a consultant – not the head honcho. Who, I might add, is the perfect reason for having anti-bullying policies in place that don’t just take into account the kids but the Staff as well! We’ve been writing about him for YEARS with this kind of behavior.
Frankly, he has cowered and co-opted the entire School Board with antics like this for years.
Sidenote: and a good reason why the School District Governance Association of NH exists – to teach School Board (and Budget Committee) members what their Powers are by State Statutes (RSAs) and that THEY are the employers while Metzler, even though a Superintendent, is merely an employee (the NH School Board Association has other ideas on this – namely, that SBs report to “the professionals” – go figure.).
Think I’m kidding? Here’s a great example of “being cowered”:
Timberlane board member Brian Boyle said he was struggling with the issue, noting that after three years on the board this is the first he’s heard about accrued compensatory time. “What’s happened has happened,” Boyle said. “Obviously, it’s been going on for years.”
Struggling? Seriously? For years? Three things immediately jumped out at me just THIS far into the article:
- What is in his contract? Does it allow for this (and more details below)? REALLY? If so, who was the fool that allowed this?
- Hey, School Board, if you allow this, where are you going to slash to come up with that extra $100K to pay him
- “Metzler said the liability has been pointed out in the audit every single year.” – And if it isn’t in his contract, why are the lot of you NOT READING THE AUDIT and going “er, this is a problem” and then secondly “Hell, no!”
But no, these spineless wondertwits are going “oh, well, I guess so”. Voter ought to toss them out as their secondary problem right after the School Board (if they were normal, if they knew the contract, and if they knew their RSAs, and if they knew what the relationship should be, and if….oh heck, you get the idea, right) tosses Metzler. Who in their right mind would accept a HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLAR bill from an employee under this condition? And where in their current budget are they going to find an extra $100K? What teachers / paras / staff / programs are going to be on the chopping block for this?
Knowing what Metzler’s done in the past, I wouldn’t be surprised if he “forced” a special town meeting to pay him – or take him to court.
And guess what – Metzler even knows it – and plays that card! Talk about disdain and contempt for those that employ and oversee his actions?
Metzler said that the contract he has with the board is what they are obligated by law to provide, but “if the board chooses to provide more, which they did, then that’s how it went,” Metzler said. He also noted employers can pay more than the minimum standards, and that he gets directives at 10 p.m. when he’s on vacation.
So he gets more than his contract because they’re bullied into giving it? What is this, Stockholm Syndrome for School Boards? Sheesh! And get this next point – “someone”?
SAU Chair Kim Farah said someone should be in charge at the SAU while Metzler is on vacation, so his time doesn’t get interrupted.
“In theory, that makes perfect sense,” Metzler said, noting that it’s not a reality. “There are certain things that I have to do.”
Metzler said a certain level of both accountability and responsibility goes with “running two districts, 9 schools, 5,000 students and all these people.”
“someone should be in charge at the SAU” – No, no, no, no, NO! YOU ARE IN CHARGE! You are the Chair – YOU are in charge! It is the responsibility of the Board – not this, IMHO, conniving Super that just doesn’t believe he can get away with any shennigans he wants, he KNOWS because he’s done it before. And is doing it again. He WORKS for them – carrying out their policies and their directives. Does “faithfully execute” ring a bell? Who is working for who here?
And of COURSE it’s not a reality – he has set up the conditions for this to happen, he’s set up this loophole just so that he can exploit it. And it is clear that he has no problem with his character in doing so. Again, why is the School Board being so mamby-pamby over this instead of bringing down the proverbial hammer?
But that would mean they would realize that they are supposed to be in charge. And they haven’t and it’s not clear that they want to be. Again, the word cowered comes easily to mind.
This next part is a doozy:
He said on some Friday and Saturday nights he is talking to Executive Assistant Cathy Belcher. “That’s just the job,” he said, also noting that he has been trying to listen to the board’s directives, and trying not to respond to them on weekends or at night. However, there are times that a police chief needs to speak to the superintendent. “But that goes with the job,” Boyle said, mentioning that if the chief gets woken up at 2 a.m. because something happens, he deals with it.
Well, Boyle, if that is how the chief operates, why aren’t you telling your Super that he needs to “deals with it“? That’s the Salary part of the job. And another question that isn’t coming into your head is “If we are paying you so much (more than any other Super in the State even though they have more kids, schools, and staff), why can’t you get it done during regular working hours (plus a little bit more)?“.
Hey, just this blogger’s lowly opinion, but Metzler’s not only blowing smoke up your collective butts but he’s having fun doing it. Reminds me of that line in Animal House that the pledge (Kevin Bacon) says during the initiation:
Thank you sir. May I have another?
And watch the face of the guy with the paddle – and his grin. I see Metzler in that – why don’t you? And guess who Bacon is the proxy for? Two guess and the first one doesn’t count. And if you missed the second one, please keep up, will ya?
Meanwhile, Metzler’s making fools of them:
“And if you chose to offer your employees additional compensatory time for their work they would say ‘thank you’ and they’d take it,” Metzler said. “And that’s what my employer did and we’re still beating this dead horse, which I have to tell you is starting to feel like harassment…which is really leading towards a hostile work environment for me and other employees in this SAU.”
In the beginning of the meeting, Metzler noted to the board that he wanted them to be aware that after consultation with the SAU’s lawyers from Drummond and Woodsum “we do believe we have been under-compensated for our comp time.” Metzler noted that a complaint with the state labor board has been made because employee compensatory time was paid in straight time instead of time and a half.
He’s trying to box them into a legal canyon and they can’t see their way out (er, that would be his contract that DOESN’T contain language supporting his claim – see above)?? This is sheer bullying – and remember that smile in the clip. So he says that the SAU is only obligated to the terms in the contract, nobody is reading it, and he’s hornswaggling them into silence and obedience by threatening them all legally.
Over something that ISN’T in his contract.
Timberlane Regional School Board’s lawyer Mark Broth, from Drummond and Woodsum, asked Director of Human Resources Nancy Louiselle if her call to one of the firm’s lawyers about the payout rate was on behalf of the board or herself. Louiselle said it was on behalf of the SAU. “The three people that are direct beneficiaries are part of the inquiry,” board member Shawn O’Neil said after the meeting. “This potential liability wasn’t disclosed to any member of the board until tonight going back to an inquiry from June.”
So NO ONE on the Board knew about this? And just signed off on this? You know, when this was first brought to my attention, I thought this was going to be yet another post on Metzler. Instead, while he is the symptomatic cause of this, the root cause is a School Board that isn’t taking their responsibilities seriously. Or they have no clue. Or both. Either way, what else is happening in the SAU that they should know about? And more importantly, what isn’t happening that should be?
And of course, a last toss-off as a parting gift:
Metzler later noted poor practices by board members as his employer writing negative things about employees in the district on Facebook. Asking Broth if this was an acceptable practice, Broth replied that board members are also members of the community, and they have the same right as anyone else to speak out, and that it’s not a board issue.
At least they had the good sense to not give up their First Amendment Right to speak simply because they won an election (note: like what the old Guard BudCom members and “Good ‘Ole Boys in town tried to do to me when I started questioning ALL of what was going on with our budget). Don’t like them? Silence them.
FWIW: the Board shoulda fired his butt years ago. That they didn’t means this problem is owned by them. Hey voters, for malfeasance of responsibilities, you need to get people onto that Board that will take control of the Board and deal with this out of control Super.
