Irvington School Board

Last week the community got shocking news. Instead of freezing administrators’ salaries, as many had asked for, the Irvington School Board gave them five figure raises.



Raises are much worse than one-time bonuses because raises are permanent and become the baseline for calculating the next increase. Most egregious is the 10% raise for the assistant superintendent for business, who is about to retire. His new salary of $232,000 will lock in a higher pension, and the extra cost of that pension is a large multiple of the raise itself. On top of that, the salary of the new principal at Dows Lane will jump from $165,000 to $176,000, which makes no sense when you figure she was hired at the market rate less than a year ago.

If you elect me to the board, I won’t make financial decisions like this. Since graduating from law school I’ve been an advocate for children and families. But in my earlier career I worked as a credit officer responsible for profitability and credit exposure for complicated transactions on a global basis, credits in the hundreds of millions of dollars. I understand finance and budgets. We need someone on the school board who has financial expertise and who understands her fiduciary responsibility to the community.

Because I have no children of my own, some people have questioned my qualifications for the board. But we do need one board member who, like me, is independent. Difficult pressures face the parents who serve. Have you ever noticed the relationship between the board and the superintendent and wondered why, each year, they renew the superintendent’s contract for an additional five years? We need someone like me who has nothing to fear.

If elected, I will listen to what parents say about what’s best for their children. I promise transparency. I’ll insist on communication in plain English – no academic goobledygook—and full disclosure of how taxpayers’ money is spent. Thank you for considering me, and please urge your neighbors to vote.

Sincerely,
Robyne Camp
61 Field Terrace
Irvington, NY 10533

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommended For You

About the Author: River Journal