At a recent school board meeting, the vote was 3-1 to pay Superintendent Dr. Jagodzinski his 5% bonus pay. Guess who was the no vote? Madicyn Reid. Who else?
Dr. J works 16-hour days, has gotten nearly a million dollars donated to the school from the community, giving us a new football field and planetarium, has done outreach to every organization in town, bringing in community volunteers to paint buildings and landscape grounds. He’s managed to merge our school buildings to save funding, he’s brought teacher morale to a new high, and he’s raised student test scores.
And Reid had the nerve to deny him a paltry bonus — he already makes way less than surrounding superintendents and could get a new job in a second, but is loyal to Fountain Hills because he lives here.
The reason Reid gave was “We still have declining enrollment.” (This is from a woman who chooses to homeschool her own kids.) When the board president tried to explain that declining enrollment is a problem across the state and the nation and we can’t really blame Dr. J for that — without him we’d have much more declining enrollment — Reid didn’t budge. She even had the nerve to say she personally knew of 10 or 12 students who wouldn’t be returning. (Could it be the $7,500 bonus Republican State Legislators give to homeschoolers?)
Thank God we have three smart school board members who can outvote this Reid problem.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.
