Will You Be Earning More Than $15,000 Per Month For LIFE When You Retire?

Will You Be Earning More Than $15,000 Per Month
For LIFE When You Retire?

That's how much money Fox C-6 Superintendent Dianne Critchlow will be getting paid when she retires thanks to our School Board's generous salary raises over the last 7 years. Your taxpayer dollars pay for educator salaries and retirement benefits. Currently, educators contribute 14.5% of their salary to their retirement and the school district contributes an additional 14.5%.

The problem here is that the Fox C-6 School Board has nearly doubled Superintendent Critchlow's salary since she became Superintendent in July 2005. Her salary has increased from $137,589 for the 2005-2006 school year to $246,824 for the 2012-2013 school year!

Prior superintendents were making roughly 25% more than assistant superintendents. Currently, Dianne Critchlow is making 55% more than the next highest paid assistant superintendent. Our school board sets her salary. Our school board is supposed to represent the community that elected them. I think you will have a tough time finding anyone in our community that would have ever approved of paying our superintendent the salary she is currently getting paid.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch recently published the 2012-2013 Missouri Educators Salary information on their website. You can select Fox C-6 and then choose between Position types such as Admin, Supervisor, Principal, Teacher, Aide, etc.:

2012-2013 STLTODAY.COM Missouri Educator Salary Lookup

Is Dianne Critchlow really worth $246,824?

Many people that I have talked to don't think so! In fact, I believe that Superintendent Critchlow has done far more damage to our district than good by far. Ask any teacher or employee in the district that isn't related to her or aren't one of her close friends what the morale is like in our district. They may not tell you for fear of losing their job. But morale is certainly not as good as it should or could be. I know there are employees in our District that appreciate any and all efforts being done to bring about a positive change to our District. So, your help is needed by contacting and speaking with our school board.

I think the best thing our school board could do for our school district and our community would be to relieve Superintendent Critchlow of her duties and hire a new Superintendent. That one change alone would be probably be the best thing to have happened to our school district and community in the last 10 years!

So, how much will our Superintendent's retirement benefits cost you?

Based on full retirement benefits, Superintendent Critchlow will be earning at least 75% of the Average Salary Amount of the 3 Highest Consecutive Years of Salary Earned. That salary amount includes employer paid medical, dental and vision health premiums. Therefore, she will be earning at least $15,000 per month for LIFE when she retires and those benefits will increase with a Cost of Living Adjustment.

Superintendent Critchlow's 

Highest 3 Years of Salary Earned So Far!
2011 - $215,276

2012 - $228,573

2013 - $246,824

Ask your school board what Superintendent Critchlow has done for our district to deserve those pay increases?

You can find details on page 6 in the Missouri Public School Retirement System Brochure on Missouri's PSRS website regarding the formula for retirement.

On page 2 of the Missouri Public School Retirement System Brochure you can see more benefits of the PSRS.

Lifetime Retirement Benefits With Five-Year Vesting
As a PSRS member, once you have earned five years of credit with PSRS, you are vested and can receive lifetime retirement benefits when eligible. In most cases, the retirement benefits paid to PSRS members greatly exceed the funds they contribute to the System while working.

In fact, most PSRS retirees recover all their contributions within the first five years of retirement.

If an educator works for more than 30 years, they will receive a slightly higher amount than the 75%. If an educator works more than 3 years beyond normal retirement, they have the option of a one time lump sum payment with reduced lifetime benefits.

There was a recent article written by James Shuls of the Show-Me Institute titled, "Salary Spikes Boosts Pensions, But Cripples Taxpayers" that was re-published in EducationNews.org. His article discusses how the recent hiring of recently retired Wentzville Superintendent Terry Adams by the Rockwood School District as interim superintendent for $250,000 will boost Mr. Adams retirement benefit by $15,000 per year for life. So, over the next 20 years, Mr. Adams will receive an additional $300,000 thanks to his extra year of work at Rockwood.

So, how does your retirement compare to what our school board is going to be providing to Superintendent Dianne Critchlow when she retires?

The school district didn't publish the administrator's salary schedule in the last board meeting packet like they did last year. So, we don't yet know what Superintendent Critchlow will be making for the 2013-2014 school year yet.