Records Show Dr. Mary Ellen Johnson Was Paid $29,784 At The End Of Her Tenure

By: Michael J. Rausch
Published: 01/13/12

Before she left her position as superintendent of schools last year, Mary Ellen Johnson presented the Sandwich School Committee with a lengthy list of requests for financial compensation.

Documents obtained by the Enterprise this week show that all totaled, Dr. Johnson asked the committee for roughly between $59,700 and $65,900 in performance bonuses, health insurance coverage, and buybacks of accrued vacation and sick days. Some of those requests were legal requirements that the committee had to honor, while others were either agreed to or denied, in some cases by very slim margins. The school committee ultimately agreed to compensate Dr. Johnson for $29,784.

Some of the requests Dr. Johnson made to the committee included a $17,500 performance bonus for Fiscal Year 2009, a cost of living adjustment (COLA) award amounting to $5,115, a performance bonus of $7,500 for FY11, $12,044 for 51 accrued sick days, and $13,284 for 25.5 accrued vacation days. All of the requested amounts were in addition to Dr. Johnson’s annual $152,000 salary.

The requests were first made during an executive session meeting with the school committee on June 22, 2011.

At that meeting, school committee Chairman Shaun P. Cahill told his board that Dr. Johnson had encumbered, or set aside, $25,000 of the Sandwich school budget in FY09 for contractual compensation. When questions were raised by the committee as to the year and the length of the encumbrance, committee member Andrea M. Killion said it was for the life of Dr. Johnson’s contract as school superintendent.

Records also showed that Dr. Johnson was awarded $7,500 of that encumbered money as a performance bonus for FY10. Her contract stipulated that because she earned that bonus, Dr. Johnson was entitled to 20 percent of that $7,500, or $1,500, in FY11.

Dr. Johnson also requested that the remainder of the encumbered money, $17,500, be awarded to her as a performance bonus for FY09 because the committee did not award her a bonus that year. The committee declined to act on Dr. Johnson’s request.

 

A request was then made by Dr. Johnson for an FY11 performance bonus of $7,500. After some discussion, the committee approved that award by a vote of 4-3. Members Robert P. Catalini, Susan L. Sundermeyer, Ms. Killion and Mr. Cahill all voted in favor of the award. Marie A. Kangas, Nancy A. Crossman and Jessica A. Linehan voted against the award. Ms. Kangas, Ms. Crossman and Ms. Linehan are being sued individually by Dr. Johnson in her breach of contract lawsuit.

Dr. Johnson’s next request was for payment of 51 sick days she accrued during her tenure as
superintendent. Her contract called for a 40 percent payment: in her case, a total of $12,043.75, but only in the event of either her retirement or death. Since neither instance applied, the school committee declined to act on that request.

Dr. Johnson then asked for buyback of approximately 25 remaining vacation days. Following discussion, Ms. Killion moved to pay Dr. Johnson all of her unpaid vacation time. That motion failed when it was not seconded.

Ms. Kangas then moved to pay Dr. Johnson for five vacation days, a motion that was seconded by Ms. Crossman. The committee voted 1-6 against Ms. Kangas’s motion. Mr. Cahill said he would schedule another executive session meeting for July 13 to revisit this request, and he would present to the committee then the exact number of vacation days Dr. Johnson had accrued.

Dr. Johnson provided the committee with an alternative, asking that in lieu of being paid for accrued vacation time, she be kept on the town payroll for an equal number of days beyond the end of her contract on June 30, 2011. Dr. Johnson also asked that the committee award her a 3 percent cost of living adjustment (COLA) for FY11, which came out to $5,115.

In 2010, all town employees, including Dr. Johnson, agreed to forego a salary increase for the coming fiscal year. However that agreement was part of the contract Dr. Johnson signed that was later nullified by a Barnstable District Court judge. That ruling is at the center of her current breach of contract lawsuit.
At the committee’s July 13, 2011, executive session meeting, Mr. Cahill told committee members he checked with town officials and determined that the encumbrance was done for FY10, and not FY09. Mr. Cahill further stated that the encumbrance was only good for FY10.

When asked by the Enterprise, Sandwich Town Accountant Doreen A. Guild confirmed that an encumbrance is only good for a single fiscal year.

“After that, the money is returned to the general town fund,” Ms. Guild explained. Further, the money must be encumbered for a specific reason, and ultimately spent for that given reason.

At the July 13 meeting, Mr. Cahill explained that for the committee to approve a performance bonus for Dr. Johnson for FY09, they needed Town Meeting approval since no money had been encumbered for FY09 by Dr. Johnson.

Mr. Cahill also informed the committee that Dr. Johnson’s accrued vacation time amounted to 25.5 days. Mr. Cahill advised the committee that they were under a legal obligation to honor Dr. Johnson’s request for buyback of her 25.5 accrued vacation days under Department of Labor rules. Ms. Kangas made a motion to pay the full number of vacation days, and the motion was carried unanimously.

Town records show Dr. Johnson was paid $13,283.54 for accrued vacation time.

Dr. Johnson also asked the committee for six months of health insurance beyond the end of her contract. Town Treasurer Craig F. Mayen said because the town covers 75 percent of premiums for town employees, the amount Dr. Johnson would have received was dependent on which insurance policy she had. The town offers several policy options. Mr. Mayen said the least expensive premium was $614 a month, while the most expensive was $1,985 a month. Dr. Johnson’s compensation would have fallen somewhere between $2,763 and $8,933.

The committee declined to act on that request.