Some Medford School Committee members say a proposal from the City Council to raise their annual salaries by more than double came as a surprise and that they don’t do the job for the money.
Council President Nicole Morell, in the last month of her tenure, is seeking to increase School Committee member pay from $12,000 to more than $29,000, aligning the annual earnings with that of city councilors.
“The ideal of equal pay for equal work is a long-established and accepted principle in our nation,” Morell’s resolution states. “This ordinance would establish pay parity for all members of duly elected legislative bodies in the city.”
School Committee members, speaking during a council meeting Tuesday, however, said they were unaware their compensation was an issue and that it’s gotten the attention of councilors.
“I wanted to kind of set something clear: The first time, as a School Committee member, that I heard about this raise was by reading it on the City Council agenda,” said Kathy Kreatz, an eight-year member of the committee. “This was not something that the School Committee discussed or even received any communications from the City Council on.”
The initial proposal looked to increase pay for regular committee members to $29,359.80, vice chair to $30,640, secretary to $31,760 and chair to $32,550. Councilors voted to send the resolution to a subcommittee to discuss further after the new year
Pay bumps under the initial proposal would have gone into effect in January. The city’s schools budget would continue to fund the wages, according to the resolution.
Breanna Lungo-Koehn, who earns roughly $135,930 as mayor, chairs the School Committee, and she “was unaware of the language in the proposal,” a city spokesperson told the Herald on Thursday.
Morell’s initial proposal hinted at how setting equal pay for elected officials would attract more men to wanting to run for the School Committee. Men, she said, have long been the majority on the City Council while women have been the majority on the School Committee for years.
The public, Morell said, views teaching as “women’s work,” with the School Committee being an “extension” of that work.
“Historically, school committees have been paid less and valued less than that of city councils statewide, countrywide, as an accepted fact,” Morell said. “One reason I brought forth this resolution is to interrogate that fact.”
“(School Committee members) play an essential role in the city,” she continued, “a role that’s getting more involved and more complicated in the current political climate, and like many city councilors, they are on call essentially 24/7.”
The School Committee has not received a compensation adjustment since fiscal year 2000, council Vice President Isaac “Zac” Bears said. City Council pay has gone up from $13,500 to $29,359 over the past 23 years, he added.
In a Reddit post on Wednesday, Councilor Kit Collins said the “headline” of the issue is how officials refuse to allocate $25 million in cash reserves to city employees in need of pay increases.
“I have said in many meetings that I believe our Administration hoards free cash,” she wrote, “and it is to the detriment of every resident and employee in the City.”
Several councilors expressed how they’d be on board with lowering their salaries to be more aligned with the School Committee, so the city can focus on addressing “problems,” such as the impact a teacher shortage is having on students with special needs.
“I had one phone call that said … we can get better candidates if we pay. That’s sad to even think of,” Councilor George Scarpelli said. “Imagine voting in people that are there for the money. That’s horrifically frightening to me.”
The School Committee had discussed a potential raise prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kreatz said. But members declined it as they wanted any additional funds to be directed towards the needs of the schools, she said.
When newly-elected member Nicole Branley looked over the agenda last week she said the proposed increases “shocked” her. She worked as a kindergarten aide for six years in the district, a role in which she earned $17,642.93, before leaving for better pay elsewhere.
“There’s been a lot of accusations on social media that newly elected members are somehow pushing for this. I had no idea,” Branley said. “I did not run for a School Committee seat for the salary.”
