Letter of the Day (Aug. 12): School bonuses

August 12, 2011 at 2:11AM
(Susan Hogan — Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

I stopped by my local pizzeria on the way home the other night. Out front, a young girl had set up a table with a small bowl. She asked if I could donate money so her school could afford to buy supplies like pencils and paper.

Knowing that times are tough, I gave what I could.

Imagine my outrage and disbelief after reading that the superintendent of schools in Minneapolis took it upon herself to dole out more than a quarter of a million dollars in retroactive bonuses to 35 administrators, "out of fairness."

This on top of spending $165,000 on a compensation study that apparently shows that the majority of district employees are already overpaid.

I wonder if the district could explain that fairness to the kid standing on 50th Street or to the 52 teachers axed to plug a multimillion-dollar budget deficit.

To put it mildly, I no longer have any confidence in either the superintendent or the school board to put the interests of students first. Which is unfortunate, because I have two kids enrolled in the Minneapolis public schools.

JIM INNES, MINNEAPOLIS

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