Once again, Dr. Homan has proven it is all about her. I find it ironic that she told subs no to a pay increase in Sioux Falls, even though they are not competitive with surrounding communities, but has no problem raking it in for herself. You would think with this giant recession and over 40% of the district’s kids on free or reduced lunches Homan (who BTW has a PHD) would be intelligent enough to ask for a smaller raise.
She will make $175,882 this year.
Under the new contract, which starts July 1, she will make $181,000 in her first year and see her pay increase each year by the same percentage as the district’s teachers.
How would you like to get a $5,000 a year raise, every year for 5 years straight? Besides the wage increase hypocrisy, you gotta love this quote;
“Sioux Falls is my home. I love Sioux Falls. It’s where I belong,” she said. “That’s why they get me for such a good deal.”
First off, you live out of town (because of your precious horses) and don’t even pay property taxes in the school district that pays your wages (still wondering when you are going to follow that rule) and secondly, $181,000 is not a good deal. I’m having trouble thinking of one single public official who makes that much in Sioux Falls. I think the highest paid city employee makes $150,000(?). Anyone wanna do some digging for me?
Outrageous. She’s doing a good job but there is certainly someone else with the same talent and qualifications who will work for less. It should be mandatory that anyone employed by the schools live within district boundaries.
Well, that is the rule, but she skirted that a long time ago because of her precious horses. See, Pam expects everyone to follow the rules except herself.
For fux sake, our School district spends $7,139 per pupil and still managed to get into the top 100 Districts in the Nation per Forbes magazine. I’d say she earned her raise and we should hope she doesn’t move somewhere that will pay her double and has a mountain range to explore.
We are talking about the person responsible for educating our kids within a budget, a position we shouldn’t be looking to get by on the cheap with. Dr. Homan is an asset to the community we should be thankful for.
You make some good points, but I have a bigger issue then her pay raise, I have an issue with her hypocrisy. She is constantly making other people follow the rules, but when it comes to her and her staff she doesn’t follow the rules. The Abortion ad comes to mind. If her communications director would have done her job, it would not have turned into the mess it became. Instead she blames the Shopping News and punishes all the non-profits for HER admin’s mistake. The lady is in a constant state of denial.
We have had an excellent school district for years… but I’m not sure I’d give Homan all the credit for it since it was excellent before she got here and will likely be excellent after she leaves.
That said, $5k isn’t a huge increase when you are pulling in $175k a year. The new contract only allows her to get the same percentage increase as the teachers… so that seems more than fair in my opinion.
I wasn’t impressed about the rules being changed so she could live outside the district, but that is only because I feel the rule should have applied since she knew about it before accepting the job. In truth, it probably doesn’t matter one bit and I doubt it has any bearing on her job performance.
Sure, but wouldn’t it seem fair to pay property taxes in the same district that frick’in employs you? Maybe that is why the rule existed to begin with? Like I said, Pam is never wrong.
For $180k she can buy a lot of horse boarding. It sounds like a lot of horse crap. Maybe she should trot the horses over to Morrells. It’s amazing the school board falls for this – allowing the super to live OUTSIDE the district.
Well we know who the school board works for.
But the rule is just silly. Are we now suggesting that all teachers, administrators, and every single city employee must live within city limits?
I don’t see the purpose. It doesn’t have any basis in logic.
I’m most offended by her line about the city getting such a good deal on her. How about a bit of humility, Ms Homan?
I’m getting offended by public servants who aren’t. Public sector salaries and pensions out-paced those in the private sector by a wide margin. We are now living in a world where city/county/ and many state employees are no longer public servants – but are public parasites.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/tbb/tbb-59.pdf
I’m all for public service. It’s long past time to reign this in.
Costner, their is a lot of logic behind it. First off, her kids should go to the same district she is super of, gives her more of a personal connection. Also, she would be contributing to the same community that contributes to her salary. It makes a lot of sense to have that rule.
The argument about her kids going to the district might have some validity, but it could also create a conflict of interest. Do you really think a teacher wants to discipline the kid of their boss? And who in their right mind would try to flunk one of them?
Besides – the rule is generic, and what if the superintendent doesn’t even have school age kids… then what purpose does his rule serve?
As to the argument that she should contribute to the same community that contributes to her salary – refer to my previous comment about city employees. I happen to know quite a few of our local police officers actually live in Brandon… should we have a rule that says anyone drawing a city salary must live within city limits?
That just seems silly and petty. There are a lot of things much more important, and this whole “residency requirement” is just an excuse for people to complain about her.
We are talking about the person responsible for educating our kids within a budget, a position we shouldn’t be looking to get by on the cheap with.
~Sy
We should not be looking to get by on the cheap Sy. But that is EXACTLY what Pam is doing, with the exception of HER salary.
Theresa Stehly is a sub teacher isn’t she l3wis? I recall reading something about the horrors a Sioux Falls sub teacher faces. What is it? $90 a day with ZERO benefits? And it’s not like these are positions used rarely. Doesn’t the SF school district have something like 600 subs on call? Just another instance of Sioux Falls trying to get by ON THE CHEAP instead of hiring full timers. Remember, these subs all went to school to teach our children. And this is how the SF school district, and Pam Homan treat them? NO to a $10 a day raise, but YES to Pam and her $5,000 a year raise… every year… for 5 years straight years.
A lot of hypocrisy there Sy. And where she lives? Not that big a deal to me. But what SHE thinks SHE is worth, and what SHE thinks her front-line troops are worth IS A VERY BIG DEAL.
Typical of an education administrator, they always think they are more important then the teachers.
Why don’t they just give substitute teachers the same percentage increase that full time teachers get? Seems like that would eliminate the need to revisit their rate every year or so.
Of course they need to ensure their rate is competitive first – that much is clear.
That’s kinda what they are asking for.
When Pam Homan took the job, she agreed to move into the Sioux Falls school district, but she couldn’t find a suitable place for her precious horses, so the rule was bent, just for her. She could have done the mature thing and moved into the district and got rid of her horses or boarded them. I hear there are a lot of people that do board their horses. Several years ago we had a purebred AKC registered Pug, and he was just like a member of the family, but we had to get rid of him when we had to move into an apartment. We could have got a doctor’s note to keep in the apartment, but I knew he would be very unhappy there. It is a matter of choice and Homan evidently rules the school board instead of the other way around. You can’t tell me that of all the district employees that she was the only one with the right qualifications.
You can’t tell me that of all the district employees that she was the only one with the right qualifications.
Actually I’m not sure there were any local candidates in the final selection pool for the job… so I’m guessing she was one of the very few with the right qualifications.
It isn’t like you can just promote a school principle to run the entire district. Typically you need someone with experience running a smaller district or other similar experience, and a doctorate doesn’t hurt either.
I don’t have a problem with Pam being from around here, in fact that is something POSITIVE about her. I have a problem with her skirting rules and blaming other people when things go wrong that are clearly her admin’s fault.
Does anyone know if they ever got doors on the toilet stalls in the middle school boys bathrooms? Having to take a shit going in the Sioux Falls Public Schools was humiliating. Yay, home school!
Our bathrooms were like that in HS. I remember one of the teachers would go deuce and figure out his checkbook at the same time. And if you would walk by the stall when he was doing his daily accounting he would say, “Hey, how’s it going?” Who knew that the smell of poo-poo inspires people to do math.
Maybe he took the phrase “making a deposit” a tad too literally?
You’d have to meet him. He was the SD history teacher and used to spell ‘Indians’ ‘Indains’ and I would point it out almost everyday and he still would spell it wrong on the chalkboard.
Now that she makes $180,000 I hope she can afford to put doors on her horse stables. I’d bet they’d like to shit in private once in a while.
I’m sure they do. Ever notice that ‘horse people’ have a certain ‘smell’ about them? I have been in close contact with Homan and noticed she lacks the true ‘horse’ smell.
What?
I have waited on her, and she is very presentable, not your stereotype ‘horse person’, you know that weird smell that is a combination of horse hair, horse shit, menthols, PBR, Old spice, dirty blankets, hay and moldy oats.
You truly are a connoisseur!
Well, I was a hog/sheep farmer growing up and my dad was an amateur cowboy/jackass, so I know the ‘animal smells’