/ Local News

05/16/2008

By MELINDA DESLATTE  / Associated Press

Louisiana's education superintendent, Paul Pastorek, has a new contract with a $56,000 boost in pay, after lawmakers agreed Friday to the $355,611 package that makes Pastorek the highest paid public schools chief in the South.

With retirement payments, Pastorek's income from the job will top $410,000 a year, and several lawmakers grumbled about the price tag of the contract. One senator called it "obscene" and a House member said he couldn't explain it to his constituents.

"How do I as a legislator justify that type of pay?" said Rep. Hunter Greene, R-Baton Rouge.

Despite the complaints, the Legislature's joint budget committee agreed in a 22-4 vote to the superintendent's four-year contract that had been negotiated by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Gov. Bobby Jindal supported the contract.

Urging approval, Senate President Joel Chaisson, D-Destrehan, said, "We're being told that this is the best man for the job, and I believe it."

Pastorek, a New Orleans lawyer and former general counsel for NASA, had said he wouldn't stay in the job without the raise. He attended Friday's meeting but spoke very little. After the vote, he said, "Thank you, and I appreciate the confidence that you all have in me."

The pay package includes a $271,611 base salary, $54,000 housing allowance and $30,000 car allowance, and the compensation can grow up to 6 percent annually if BESE gives Pastorek a positive job evaluation. By July 1, 2011, Pastorek could bring in $448,951 a year — before retirement payments, which he can receive in a check if he wants.

The average education superintendent in the South earns a base salary of $175,416 and oversees more schools and students.

Last month, the budget committee refused to approve Pastorek's contract until the committee got more details from BESE about how the superintendent's work will be graded. In coordination with Pastorek, BESE drew up a list of 18 benchmarks it wants Pastorek to meet each year.

But Greene noted it's up to BESE to determine how many of those performance standards he must achieve to receive a positive job evaluation. The contract doesn't include language requiring Pastorek to achieve a certain percentage or number of the standards included in his annual evaluation.

"We are working on a grading system for what constitutes a positive evaluation," said BESE President Linda Johnson.

Johnson praised Pastorek and said his salary was well-deserved. She said his job duties go beyond the traditional requirements of a state superintendent because Pastorek oversees schools taken over by the state, including the Recovery School District schools in New Orleans, and the rebuilding of school systems devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita more than two years ago.

"We selected the right candidate. I believe he has the right vision," Johnson said.

By law, BESE negotiates the contract, but the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget must approve it. However, BESE started paying Pastorek the new salary in February, a point that prompted complaints from lawmakers.

Pastorek began the superintendent's job in March 2007. He had served for eight years as a BESE member, from 1996 to 2004.

Sen. Eric LaFleur, D-Ville Platte, complained that BESE didn't do a national search or even interview other candidates for the superintendent's job when Cecil Picard died in February 2007 after a decade as superintendent.

"Why only one person?" he said.

LaFleur called Pastorek's salary "obscene," saying Texas, Florida and Georgia all pay their superintendents less though they supervise more students and more schools. Louisiana's education superintendent oversees 69 public school districts, with more than 1,500 schools and 654,000 students.

LaFleur; Greene; Sen. Nick Gautreaux, D-Meaux; and Rep. Tom McVea, R-Jackson, voted against approving the contract.