Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 19, 1992 TAG: 9201190138
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
HIGH PAY BRINGS HIGH CRITICISM
Frank Tota's paycheck has been one of the most controversial aspects of his decade as superintendent of Roanoke schools.Like city teachers, he hasn't had a raise in two years. But he is still one of the highest-paid superintendents in Virginia.
It used to be an annual event for the School Board to give Tota a raise of 5 percent, 7 percent or 9 percent and then for City Council to grumble about it. One year, council tried unsuccessfully to block a planned $3,000 raise for Tota by cutting $3,300 from the School Board's budget.
It was also big news the year Tota surpassed former City Manager Bern Ewert to become the city's highest-paid employee.
So why has Tota's pay been such a big deal?
Some say it's because Roanoke is a relatively small city paying Tota the salary of a Richmond or Virginia Beach superintendent.
Tota's salary has consistently ranked among the top 10 in Virginia, putting him in a class with superintendents of much larger districts.
When Tota's current contract was approved in 1989, a dozen other state superintendents had higher base salaries than Tota's $90,915, according to a Virginia School Boards Association survey. But only two had fewer students.
That same year, Roanoke's average teachers salary was below the state average, as it was the previous year.
At the time, the Virginia Beach superintendent earned $85 more than Tota but led a system with more than five times as many students as Roanoke's 12,000.
Adding to the controversy is the fact that $90,915 is Tota's base salary. He also receives an $11,744 tax-deferred annuity - something few superintendents receive and rarely more than $3,000. In Fairfax, with 130,000 students in 1989, the superintendent got a $10,000 annuity.
And there are additional fringe benefits sprinkled throughout Tota's contract.
Tota gets $6,000 a year for his own car, for example. Most other state superintendents, according to the 1989 survey, got a state-owned car or between $2,000 and $4,000 for an annual car allowance.
Tota also gets a special exemption on his unused sick days. Like other employees, he gets reimbursed for the days he doesn't use. But that reimbursement is retroactive - unlike other employees - and Tota has so far saved more than 100 days. That's more than $35,000, based on an approximate daily pay rate of $350.
Tota used to get unlimited and retroactive reimbursement on vacation days, too. But a few years after he started, he built up more than 70 days and his contract was changed. He now gets reimbursed at the end of each year for unused vacation days.
James Turner, a School Board member who was chairman when Tota's contract was approved, said there was good reason for all those perks:
To get Frank Tota to stay in Roanoke.