Letter to the editor
To the editor:
I am appalled at the hiring of the new transportation supervisor, Marcy Decker, from Sparta.
Our former transportation supervisor, Debra Espinosa, was hired on Oct. 18, 2011, at a salary of $55,000, which was less than the previous transportation supervisor. Ms. Espinosa left the position as of Sept. 3, 2014, at a salary of $58,481.
Ms. Decker was hired on Oct. 18, 2014, with a prorated salary of $85,000. How is that justified? The administration would not correct Ms. Espinosa’s salary, but they will hire Ms. Decker for over $25,000 more. She did not have as much experience as Ms. Espinosa. She did not save her district $1.5 million, like Ms. Espinosa did. So what was her hiring point? She does not have the knowledge of the town. She does not come from a district of 8,000 students.
School Business Administrator Aiman Mahmoud held interviews for a new transportation supervisor, narrowing it down to two candidates. I am yet again appalled that Mr. Mahmoud did not even think that our transportation coordinator, Dawn Welches, who also applied for the position, should not even make it to the second interview process.
Ms. Welches, whom maybe many of you do not know, has been with Hillsborough Transportation since 2008 and is a lifelong resident of Hillsborough. She has worked hand in hand with the past three transportation supervisors over her six years in Hillsborough and is completely competent for this position. In fact, she has been running the transportation department, along with the secretary, Melissa Neary, since Debra Espinosa left on Aug. 6. August and September are the hardest months, with school starting, let alone hundreds of changes, additions and requests that are received.
The two candidates who made it to the second interview with Superintendent Jorden Schiff were Marcy Decker and James Hager Jr. Mr. Hager has been in the school bus business for 26 years and was also highly qualified for the position. Mr. Hager has a transportation supervisor’s certificate that needed updating, even though it was not a requirement of the job.
Instead of hiring someone who knows every inch of Hillsborough and is highly qualified with years of experience already in our town, I do not understand why Superintendent Schiff and Business Administrator Mahmoud would hire someone "wet behind the ears" and connected with a lawsuit in Sparta Township from her job as transportation supervisor.
This information was given to our Board of Education members. They still decided to approve the hiring of Ms. Decker with a whopping prorated salary of $85,000 through June 30, 2015. How much will she make on the next contract when it is a full year? I guess they realized this was an exorbitant amount of salary increase and justification was needed. So they created another title of "head of security" for Ms. Decker. Are you serious? And keep in mind she did not start work here until Oct. 20, after school started and all the hard work had been done already! So Ms. Welches was good enough to set everything up prior to school as well as open school, but not good enough to continue the job. And our Board of Education members approved this!
At the Oct. 13 Board of Education meeting, the board has put in a resolution cutting transportation secretary Melissa Neary’s job from fulltime (8 hours) to parttime (4 hours), citing reasons of economy and efficiency.
Is the board now looking for yet another way to justify that $85,000 salary they agreed to pay the new transportation supervisor? Not only that, but they call it on the agenda as Resolution B-15; they did not have the courage to state her name or position. They just hid it from the public.
Shame on you, Hillsborough Board of Education members, Business Administrator Mahmoud and Superintendent Schiff. Just one small example as to why our school taxes are so high due to excessive spending.
Diane Hawzen
Hillsborough