$3.1 million Paid to Top Franklin School Administrators Over Past Five Years
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 12:56 PM "We are returning to frugality and making the long-term decisions to balance our budget now and more importantly into the future. We will do the heavy lifting to protect our children and grandchildren from having to make the hard decisions that were once avoided."
—Gov. Scott Walker, March 1, 2011
In its 2011-12 Budget Draft Franklin Public Schools (FPS) asks: What in the World is Affecting Franklin Public Schools? Here are the answers provided by FPS’ administration.
- The Economy
- State Budget Problems
- Possible State Law Changes
- Revenue Limits
- More Federal money means more time spent reporting
Like any government monopoly, over-spending didn’t even make the list.
"Since our primary purpose is to be advocates for the students in our community, it is imperative that we place some of the best teachers in our state in front of our students for a quality educational experience to occur.”
—Steve Patz, Superintendent, Franklin Public Schools, FPS2011-12 Budget introduction : Looking Back, and Forward
Huh?! I thought the school district's primary purpose was to educate its students.
In his July 5 story entitled: Franklin schools tackle challenging budget by FranklinNOW’s Rick Romano we get a good sense for what some Franklin School District administrators and school board members think of the 2011-12 Franklin Public Schools (FPS) budget and budgeting process in light of Governor Scott Walker’s two-year $66 billion state budget deal designed to balance the state’s budget and close the $3.5 billion budget gap without raising taxes or fees, while reining-in local government’s taxation and spending. (e.g. public school boards and municipalities).
From Romano’s piece:
Quoting Franklin’s complaining Superintendent Steve Patz, Romano writes “Every school district is different, but we all face difficulty that has been complicated by the state budget process this year. Just like in every year, we approve a budget and then wait until we have the final student count in October to finalize the numbers."
How did our neighbors in New Berlin react to Walker’s budget?
Romano also reported that Patz pointed to the new environment for teachers as well and that Patz and Human Resources Director Judith Mueller this spring visited teachers to discuss the collective-bargaining issue and to get input regarding budget ideas. As readers may already know, Wisconsin’s collective bargaining laws were stripped from certain public sector unions, including the teacher’s union with the signing of Act 10 (Budget Repair Bill) and Act 32.
While we’re on the subject of pay, THE FRANKLIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL conducted a five-year review of the top four Franklin School District Administrators’ salaries and benefits and found that from 2007—2011 taxpayers paid these four individuals a total of compensation of $3,148,441 (salary and benefits).
In its 2011-12 Budget, the district reported an $833,491 budget deficit in the 2008-09 school year, the year Patz was hired, and eliminated, among other things the equitant of 6.2 teachers to reduce the deficit. Nowhere in its 2008-09 budget were reductions administration salaries or benefits reduced.
Using school and staff salary data submitted to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction by the school districts, we collected salary and benefit data for the top paid (4) administrators; District Administrator, Steve Patz, Business Manager, Jim Milzer, Central Office Administrator, Judith Mueller and Central Office Administrator, Michael Zellmer. Here are the total annual salary and benefits breakdown paid each of theses administrators between 2007-2011.
2007
District Administrator, Bill Szakacs*: $152,474
Business Manager, Jim Milzer: $169,489
Human Resources Director, Judy Mueller: $142,487
Central Office Administrator, Michael Zellmer: $109,065
2008
District Administrator, Steve Patz: $224,700
Business Manager, Jim Milzer: $188,979
Human Resources Director, Judy Mueller: $172,036
Central Office Administrator, Michael Zellmer: $132,720
2009
District Administrator, Steve Patz: $236,573
Business Manager, Jim Milzer: $200,707
Central Office Administrator, Judy Mueller: $182,714
Central Office Administrator, Michael Zellmer: $140,956
2010
District Administrator, Steve Patz: $236,573
Business Manager, Jim Milzer: $200,707
Human Resources Director, Judith Mueller: $182,714
Central Office Administrator, Michael Zellmer: $140,956
2011
District Administrator, Steve Patz: $221,075
Business Manager, Jim Milzer: $200,707
Human Resources Director, Judy Mueller: $182,714
Central Office Administrator, Michael Zellmer: $140,956
So much for "shared prosperity and shared responsibility” with this crew.
*Szakacs’ contract was fired in 2007. Cost to taxpayers is unknown. I was told by the a former school board member at the time, that the District spent approximately $30,000 with an executive search firm to find Patz; Szakacs’ successor.
By July of 2010, Patz was looking for “greener pastures” in the Wausau School District. His total pro-rated salary and benefits in 2010 with FPS was $236,573.
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