On another post Anonymous wrote:
" Why is the matter of Chris Berdnik being ignored here? 3+ people have posted on the start a new thread. $140,000 plus attorney fees and 9 months health care insurance is a lot of money.
Taxpayers are footing this hush money. I am personally tired of these back alley deals. They are pubic employees, I am surprised we and the board have no rights regarding what is going on. At the very least the board seems to get minimal information."
An Anonymous responded:
"There are plenty of people on the Board who know what is going on. Chances are they all know but choose to pretend not too, which is a good bet with the CFO situation.
For every new or open position somebody should have to sit down with a group of parents and answer the question "How will this position raise my kids grades?" Then the candidates would have to TALK to my child. Thirty minutes, that is all I am asking for. Let my child be the reason the candidate wants to do a good job. I am offended by the use of the Talent Management title. Is this the trend in edcation? Some creative naming to create the illusion of greatness? Way too much upper management."
Posted by Anonymous to PURE Reform at January 4, 2011 7:59 AM
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Just as with Lynn Spampinato, there isn't much anyone can say about Chris Berdnik's resignation. The agreements always include a non-disclosure provision for both parties, and the discussions leading up to the agreements do involve personnel. Maybe over time information will come out (for example, since the CFO is involved maybe financial reports will hold some clues) but we will never know for sure.
The fact that an attorney was involved and the way the money was divided into 3 parts, makes it seem like something went on behind the scenes that there even was a "settlement."
The school district is funded by tax dollars, I don't understand why public employees are allowed to keep such open secrets.
I also think Ira Weiss is a MAJOR PROBLEM. I think PPS needs to get a different law firm.
Wow, an editorial was posted on the Trib.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib
/opinion/s_716152.html
The editorial mentions 183 unused sick days. Could the district be allowing more sick days than are really needed? Maybe teachers need a large number of sick days since they are exposed to every germ going around, but that might not be the case for administrators. Many large employers are moving toward a set number of "PTO" (paid time off) days that must be used or lost.
Excellent point, regarding administrators and sick days. Administrators, particularly at that level, have a lot more leeway, as well. If they are going to a meeting that night, taking a longer lunch and getting a doctor's appointment in is perfectly reasonable.
Teachers on the other hand have no give in their working hours and can't just pop out for an afternoon and make it up another time.
Flexibility in working hours is becoming more and more important to younger workers. Up until now teachers had the summer to make up for lack of flexibility during the school year. It may be hard to attract them to year round school with breaks spent on remediation and enrichment courses.
I am a lay person, but I would guess that the rules regarding sick day usage and unused at the time of separation are covered by the school code or by the pde. Some things are outside the control of any school district. The item that caught my attention was the medical, dental and eye coverage continuation.
Does anyone wonder about the district being barred from making any derogotory comments about the departing CFO? Might that be an indication that there is some basis for comments? Do we really care about what is essentially a small amount of money when compared to the amount being spent on all the open positions mentioned elsewhere on this blog and on the district site?
I think you are reading the agreement the wrong way. The payout of sick days would be governed by the Pittsburgh Administrator Association salary plan. It's a formula that is something like 1/3 of sick days valued at $60 per day. Nowhere even close to what was paid.
This tells me the district was quite anxious to keep HIM quiet, not the other way around.
He came to speak to the parent group several times and was very genuine and knew the business quite well.
Something's wrong here and it is on the district, not the other way around.
Hush money again.
This is the second most obvious hush money issue since Lynn Spampinato. Most others have been shushed off.
Number one reason PPS (he resigned) excuse failed this time was due to the attorney the CFO hired. He specializes in public employee law rights.
http://www.mtroyallaw.com/eolds.html
Who hires an attorney when they are resigning?
I do not know who is hushing who, but the 1/3 sick pay is based on the 147000 salary. He gets paid according to his leaving salary rate even if he made an average of 75k per year over the past 15 years.
I think this is a mutual hush. I guess paying off people is normal in Pittsburgh. I find it appauling.
No, the formula for payout is not at all related to salary.
It is found on page 18 of the Pittsburgh Administrators salary plan. Days x 1/3 x $60. That's it. Nothing to do with salary. In this case, that would have been roughly $3,600.
That is a huge discrepency. Yet again the media does not ask questions.
Kind of raises the question of why the elected Board is content to sit back and be lied to by Roosevelt and Weiss, doesn't it?
Wasn't the lawyers comment that this was simply a payout of days?
That's a bold face lie. Look at the PAA salary plan. It's in black and white and all of the PR army in the world cannot spin it.
Everything is Suspect
Question Everthing
Of course everything is suspect, starting with the Solicitor.
Maybe you should read more about him:
http://www.sec.gov/info/municipal/dcccweissopinion112806.pdf
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/opinions/33-8641.pdf
This is too funny.
"The city school district bounced a $27,000 check to its former chief financial officer just days after his official departure"
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/
news/pittsburgh/s_717252.html
It's like Visa, priceless.
Perhaps the communications' team can craft a new slogan:
DREAM BIG
WORK HARD
BOUNCE CHECKS
Bounced check. You can't make this kind of stuff up but it is odd that so many details are in the air. I can tell you that banks are not in the habit of disclosing this type of info, so the source is not any financial institution. Wouldn't one of the parties involved making this media knowledge be some fringe violation of confidentiality agreements?
That would be a six figure mistake.
Bounced checks and CFO-I am shocked by the PPS for allowing a former employee to be a victim of this error-yes a six figure mistake and Chris B comment makes me wonder why we should have more insight to the whys the Board pays their bills to current and former employees.
C
hris B acted very professional with his answer- a six-figure mistake?
Anon you might be right that the district has violated the agreement. Based on the details of the agreement that the PG and Trib published in December, it appears that the district was to make payment in December. A check that bounces does not satisfy this.
The response by the CFO to this report seemed pretty mild. He didn't talk about the agreement, pittsburgh or his pittsburgh experience at all.
I did notice that the evening of the vote the board's solicitor issued a statement and then followed it up by providing explanations of the agreement to the media. This seemed to be in direct violation of the agreement.
My guess is that seeing how detail oriented berdnik was at board meetings is that if he were going to violate the confidentiality clause that he probably has five years of most entertaining paper trails to do so.
Unfortunately for those of us that care passionately about this district, I do not think this will come to pass.
Sooner or later someone who gets screwed, will "leak" the truth about this matter.
I think the fear and power weilded by PPS will prevent this.
They have zero accountability and know how to blackball, scare and intimidate.
Ha, just listen to a few of the learning walk leaders to understand the idea of fear.
These people should be made to pay, and I pray daily that they are placed in our district's most difficult schools to toil in front of the most difficult kids until they are ready to retire.
African males high,drop out rate,suspension,expulsion among other things,where is the out cry from the PPS community
i thought the American Education System is for everyone and not the selective few,is there two system one to train students to play football and basketball and the other one to to make the honor roll and the debate team,being since we always say education should be for all students and just for a few after all we did intergrate Little Rock school dist
our black males have to be educated so thay they can contribute to society
I've seen AA male teachers with great relationships with their students working very hard to counteract a lot of this. One I heard while he was explaining to a (very smart) middle schooler that unless he'd already had interest from recruiters, he had better have a back-up plan for education ready to go.
But this kid, despite his academic abilities still thought (and was encouraged by his parents) that he was headed for the NBA. He paid much less attention to the role model of the person right in front of him, in the community, with an education and a job, etc.
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