MASON CITY – At Monday’s Mason City School Board meeting, local CPA Tim Wendel questioned the spending practices of the school district as the board considered cutting coaches and contracts for educators.
Wendel spoke about how much athletics and his high school coaches meant to him.
“I loved football. Right after my dad, they were probably the most influential male role models in my life,” Wendel said.
“They best thing about my coaches was that they were always ready to give me immediate feedback.”
Wendel is a finance manager for the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, he said Monday.
“I understand how tough budgets are,” Wendel said.
“In the private sector… we always look at the overhead. I don’t consider teachers overhead. I don’t consider coaches overhead.”
“We are not a job agency,” Wendel said, referring to the school district. “We are not here to preserve people’s jobs. We’re here to promote opportunities for young people.”
See video:
httpv://youtu.be/arUNiqYXP8s
“I’M JUST GONNA KEEP POSTING HOW 11.3 MILLION GOES TO 163 TEACHERS IN 8 MONTHS IN THE MASON CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT!!! THAT AMOUNT OF MONEY IS SOOO RIDICOULS!!” [SIC]
Where did you get those figures? Exactly what do they represent.
And how can those figures be ‘RIDICOULS’?
Ah-been waiting for you to post,but it was such a short post, mr. observer. And using my words at that. Wondering if your a teacher yourself? One that sits at his, hers, it’s little desk with a keyboard and looks to try to top someone else’s posting because he feels that he is far more superior then the rest because he is an educator by trade, but a dummy when it comes to the real world of life. One that has no clue to the outside world of common sense. One that could not figure out how to get himself out of a wet paper bag, but yet one that thinks he has the most superior answers when posting. One that strives for a debate on everything. Does that make you feel good- mr.observer, does it make you feel good that blogging is the ONLY WAY that you are heard in your circle of life? Because by seeing and reading your past posts, there is no one in there right mind that would live with you for any amount of time. Your to perfect and precise for day to day living. I give it to you that you are intelligent, so therefore, you should spend all day and figure out where I got my figures from.
They are true hard facts- 163 teachers in the Mason City School district make $60,000- $100,000 in 8 months and that amount is roughly 11.3 million dollars, and it is RIDICOULS! The ones at the top need to be cut- So the budget jives and there is every academic and athletic opportunity for the children in this district. ARE THOSE 10 TEACHERS MAKING $90,000-$100,000 IN THIS DISTRICT GIVING THE CHILDREN ALL OPPORTUNITY- ABSOLUTLEY NOT- THEY ARE LINING THEIR POCKETS AND WORRY ABOUT THEMSLEVES.
@Anonymous-I agree with the text of your comments. Don’t think I agree with your attack on observer. I think that takes away from your message.
It sounds like you agree with Observer. What’s wrong with you mind? A brain fart?
Ok-this was Wendel’s opinion and I understand what he is saying. In his world there are direct workers, these are generally people who produce product and make money for the company. Then there are indirect workers (overhead) that are generally management, forklift drivers and shippers. He is trying to apply his private business knowledge to a government run business and I don’t think it is apples to apples. I agree the school system is very heavy in the management (overhead) side but coaches and extracurricular teachers are also overhead as they do not teach the basics. They teach comfort subjects. I am not saying what they teach is not important to the kids that take them but, they are not really necessary. They can survive without them and possibly they would be better off if they concentrated more on the subjects they need to get by in this life.
LVS, Many coaches are also full time teachers in the school system.
@John-I understand that. So let them keep teaching if they are qualified. But coaching sports is a indirect job and they do it just to bump up their income. Now, I have nothing against bumping up your income unless it is being done at my expense. Then I don’t support it. Anything that is not directly connected to needed subjects is indirect and subject to being cut. It is how it is done in the real world and it should be done that way in academics.
I’m amazed at how this story went way over peoples heads. Did you even read it or just the headline?
Wendell is NOT FOR cutting ANY teachers or coaches. He’s saying that they shouldn’t be considered an expense. He’s saying they should be paid more because his experience was positive to him.
Don’t you people read?
DIDN’T GO OVER MY HEAD- EVERYTIME NIT WRITES A STORY ANYWHERE CLOSE TO THIS WHOLE TOPIC-I’M JUST GONNA KEEP POSTING HOW 11.3 MILLION GOES TO 163 TEACHERS IN 8 MONTHS IN THE MASON CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT!!! THAT AMOUNT OF MONEY IS SOOO RIDICOULS!!! IT’S TIME TO CUT THESE TEACHERS AT THE TOP SO THERE IS OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL STUDENTS IN EVERY ACADEMIC AND ATHLETIC POSSIBILITY.
I hear you and I’m all for THAT!
This is directed at Seriously…What I said in the video was that if we are running the schools like a business, you cut overhead first during difficult times with overhead consisting primarily of the admin and indirect staff. It makes no sense to cut the “doers” and leave admin in place. As the district continues to lose enrollment, other areas may need to be addressed, but for now, admin is the low hanging fruit.
@Tim Wendel-OK, That I can go along with. It is a business mans approach rather than a government approach.
I would surmise that thees are not difficult times at all. I would consider this the cushiest of times. Roman decadence of the highest order.
Adjusted for inflation even, we spend twice as much as we did in the 70’s for almost half as many students. This is Rome under Nero. The height of decadence.
Tim Wendel … FOR SCHOOL BOARD!!!!
Hats of to Tim Wendel for stepping up and giving his opinion on this whole thing! TEACHERS IN THIS DISTRICT ARE BANKING SO MUCH MONEY IN JUST 8 MONTHS OF WORK AND THEY KNOW IT- THAT’S WHY THEY KEEP QUIET!! I really truly feel the teachers are very well paid to just follow the bare minumim ciriculum that they do in this district. Trim the fat at the top and let academics and athletics still be a part of Mason City tradition!!!
Ya 163 teachers with a roughly 11.3 million dollars between them in 8 months, thats ridiculous!!!
71 teachers make between $60,000-$65,000- roughly 4.5 million in salaries
40 teachers make between $65,000-$70,000- roughly 2.7 million in salaries
42 teachers make between $70,000-$80,000- roughly 3.1 million in salaries
10 teachers between $90,000-$100,000- roughly 1 million in salaries
Are those numbers the pay or is that total package? Rule of thumb is you can add 1/3 for insurance, IPERS witholding ect. So in effect a 100000 pay is costing us 130000
And promoting young peoples opportunities mean preserving district jobs in your mind…right?
That’s what I thought.
BS, because we spend twice as much for about half the student population we had in the 60’s-70’s. Did this promote more opportunities for the students or educators? Who else makes $60,000-$100,000 a year and works 8 months?
Who?
Congress?
So teachers should be paid as much as our handful of congress people per state?
It was very smart of the School Board to drop the “S” word (SPORTS) into the conversation. If there is anything that will get people riled up is putting out even the thought that they would impose budget cuts in the sports program. We would not have had even mild outcry if they said that they were going to cut the foreign language budget or eliminate math or science classes, but talk about even minor cuts in the sports budget and people are willing to tar & feather the school board.
We have our values all wrong!
If it aint your money, you dont care how much of somebody elses you spend
I can not believe some of the wages handed out at the school system. Whow