HAMMOND | The School Board showed its pleasure with the School City of Hammond superintendent Thursday night by unanimously approving a raise and extending his contract by four years.
Superintendent Walter Watkins got the same raise that all other school groups got -- 2 percent retroactive to Jan. 1, 2008; 0.86 percent retroactive to July 1; and 2 percent effective Jan. 1, 2009. The raise brought his salary to $136,184.
Watkins' contract would have ended June 30. However, the board extended it to June 30, 2013. Watkins, who was obviously happy with the new deal, has been superintendent since Jan. 1, 2003.
In addition to announcing the contract extension, the board approved agreements for all other school employees for the same raise percentages. The contract for teachers was approved a couple of months ago.
Hammond School Board member Lucinda Murphy commended the district for improving its ISTEP-Plus scores in a number of grade levels. She commended students, teachers and administrators, after reading off some of the scores, highlighting improvements in English/language arts and math.
In other action, the School Board approved a tax anticipation warrant authorizing a request for $9.8 million, with a 3.1 percent interest rate.
Hammond schools treasurer Karen Wallisch told the board the district's financial picture has improved greatly now that the state has taken over the general fund and the preschool special education fund. That change takes place Jan. 1. Before that, those two funds, along with most other school funds, relied on property tax revenue collections to survive.
The general fund is what pays most operating expenses such as salaries and benefits.
Even though the district has not received property tax revenue collections for 2008, Wallisch said the situation is not so bleak. She said this time last year, the district sought a loan for $38 million. Of that amount, the district has paid back more than $25 million. She said it will only have to carry over a debt from that loan of $12.6 million.
