January 30, 2015
Cortland, Homer extend contracts for school chiefs
Two school districts extended contracts with their school superintendents recently: Homer extended a contract with Superintendent Nancy Ruscio on Tuesday and Cortland extended a contract with Superintendent Michael Hoose on Jan.13.
Both contracts extended the same salaries and terms of the superintendents’ employment until January 2019.
Ruscio’s contract sets her yearly salary at $158,322. The board of education voted 8-0 to approve the contract, with board member Katie Dwyer abstaining.
Hoose said Thursday his contract extends his employment to 2019 and sets his salary at $156,825.
The board of education voted 5-0, with board members Donald Colongelli and Judith Murphy absent, to approve Hoose’s contract.
Hoose is allotted 20 vacation days and 12 paid sick days each year. The district will pay 90 percent of the premium of an individual plan or 75 percent of a premium for a family plan. Under the contract, the district offers to pay Hoose $3,000 a year toward a life insurance premium if he would like to carry a policy.
Ruscio is allotted 25 vacation days and 20 days of sick leave. The district is set to pay 85 percent of the cost of health insurance for Ruscio and her dependents as well as $2,500 for a life insurance policy premium.
At Tuesday’s board of education meeting, Ruscio said she was honored to continue to serve as superintendent.
Ruscio said Thursday her goal for the next four years is to continue improving students’ achievement at the district, referring to charts of students’ scores and graduation rates presented at Tuesday’s meeting.
Graduation rates at the district have increased from 79 percent of the class of 2010 to 91 percent of the class of 2014, according to the presentation.
The district has also seen significant improvement in English language arts and math scores in fifth grade, a benchmark year, Ruscio told the board.
In 2012, the district was in the 27th percentile in the state for English language arts scores for fifth-graders and in the14th percentile for fifth-grade math scores, according to the presentation. In 2014, grades rose to the 64th percentile for fifth-grade English language arts and about 62nd for fifth-grade math.
Over the next four years, Hoose said this morning he will focus on raising graduation rates, promoting skills important to the work force such as collaboration and applying knowledge, increasing project based learning and continuing to implement the Common Core curriculum.
Cortland’s class of 2014 had a graduation rate of 69 percent, according to state data, the lowest rate in Cortland County.
Both superintendents cited state funding issues as the major challenge of their last four years.
Hoose noted an increase in unfunded state mandates, while Ruscio said cuts in state aid have unfairly defunded poor districts that rely more heavily on the aid.
Homer has lost $14,878,591 in state aid since the Gap Elimination Adjustment, enacted in 2010, which took money away from school districts to balance the state budget. Cortland was denied $7,753,562 in state aid since 2010 through the Gap Elimination Adjustment, according to the district.
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