Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 24, 1990 TAG: 9006220573
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Jack Chamberlain
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Boy, he was good! I mean, Merv Griffin could have used him in his negotiations with Donald Trump.
His contract said he'd be superintendent from July 1, 1989, to June 30, 1993, but he left town three years and two weeks early without a scratch.
Besides a starting salary of $79,500 (he already had a raise to $83,475, starting July 1), his contract provided:
$400 a month for using his own car, plus the state mileage rate for school business outside the county.
Family hospitalization and medical insurance and maximum amounts of life insurance and disability insurance allowed under the Virginia Supplemental Retirement System, all paid by the taxpayers.
Full retirement contributions (including his), all paid by the taxpayers.
Moving expenses from Vero Beach, Fla. - $8,012 - all paid by the taxpayers.
Twenty days (four weeks) of vacation each year, including his first year, plus "an initial grant of ninety (90) days sick leave, and shall receive one (1) day of sick leave for each month worked not to exceed one hundred forty (140) days."
". . . a tax-sheltered annuity of $9,500 per contract year of employment served by him under this contract."
The board agreed to pay Burns the annuity for the year that turned out to be a week short.
Board members said they had no legal way out. So, neither did Jim Burns. The board should have let him sue. It's a long drive back up here from Georgia for a hearing.
But, heck. Maybe Burns' new contract with the Muscogee County (Ga.) School Board also includes mileage.
Where was this man when Merv needed him?
\ You send your kid off to college and you think you're going to get a break, at least until summer vacation, right?
Wrong!
My daughter, the Radford University student, backed into the driveway a few weeks ago, her vintage Toyota loaded with nearly all her worldly goods, as if she was going to stay awhile.
She was.
She was home from college. For the whole summer. And it was only April.
What's this April stuff?
Now, when I was a boy (boy, my daughter hates that! Heh, heh), a week of spring break came in April. College classes didn't really end until early June, when summer is supposed to start.
At the rate these college administrators are going, by my calculations, in a few short years college classes will start on Tuesday and end on Thursday.
Tuition and fees, of course, will be due the previous Monday.
Hey, this is serious, folks. Unless this trend is stopped, college will end before it starts, falling just short of the college paying parents non-tuition for non-classes.
By the way, before returning home, our daughter wanted assurances that we wouldn't treat her like a child (i.e. baby). We said fine, if she didn't treat us like parents (i.e. dirt).
So far, so good.
by CNB