Raise, new contract for U46 school chief Torres through 2016

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

ELGIN — Back in 2009, Superintendent Jose Torres refused a 3.7 percent salary increase when the U46 Board of Education extended his contract through 2014.

But at Monday night’s school board meeting, the school board unanimously approved a new contract that bumps Torres’ salary 1.5 percent or “whatever the teachers agree to — whichever is higher,” according to outgoing President Ken Kaczynski.

“Dr. Torres has been working at the salary he was hired at three years ago,” Kaczynski said.

Torres’ new contract extends his tenure in U46 by two years through June 30, 2016, and increases his salary to at least $223,300, starting July 1. For all remaining years of the contract, Torres will receive an increase equal to the average percentage received by teachers.

It also “provides incentives for Dr. Torres and for the board of education to maintain his leadership during the next five years,” according to Kaczynski. And, board member Amy Kerber said in a written statement from U46, it “demonstrates our board’s commitment to stability and momentum.”

The new contract includes the purchase of a $10,000 annuity for each contract year and the purchase of service credit through the state’s Teachers Retirement System of up to $35,000 for each of the last two years of his contract if he completes it. The district also will compensate Torres for five additional vacation days at the end of the year.

“We’re actually adding to his job,” Kaczynski said. “One of the things we wanted to incorporate into Dr. Torres’ contract was to add to his goals, and in order to do that, we had to” write a new contract.

Any superintendent’s contract for more than one year must include performance goals, according to state law. U46 will add “to achieve the targets and benchmarks outlined in Destination 2015,” outgoing school board president Kaczynski said.

Destination 2015 is just one of Torres’ accomplishments that was noted by the school board in a written statement released by the district Monday. Torres’ leadership and the five-year accountability plan give U46 a clear vision for the future and measurable targets toward key academic and operational goals, according to the district.

“I am proud to be a member of this community, and even prouder to have the ability to be working alongside this great board of education, my administrative team, all of our teachers and support staff, and parents and community leaders, as we continue serving our 41,000 students,” Torres said in a written statement.

The superintendent currently makes $220,000 as head of the state’s second-largest school district, according to his old contract, which was set to run July 1, 2008, through June 30, 2014.

The school board had planned to bump Torres’ salary to $228,140 in the 2009-10 school year, an increase equal to the average annual percentage pay increase that U46 teachers had expected to receive that year. But when he asked other district administrators and nonunion workers to take a pay freeze, the superintendent also took that freeze.

New board members seated

Also sticking around U46 for at least the next four years are the four school board members elected in early April and a new student adviser.

Board members Kerber and Maria Bidelman, both of Elgin, were re-elected to a second term.

Joining them on the board are Elginites Traci O’Neal Ellis and Jennifer Shroder, who replace retiring longtime board members Kaczynski and Karen Carney. Those board members took the oath of office after Torres’ contract was approved and did not vote on the measure.

The board chose board member Donna Smith as board president, Kerber as vice president and O’Neal Ellis as secretary pro-tempore. U46 Chief Legal Officer Pat Broncato will remain secretary and treasurer for the board.

“Put on your seatbelts,” Torres said.

The board also will swear in Streamwood High School junior Jacqueline Martinez to be its new student adviser at its next meeting Monday .