MASON CITY – As questions swirl in the community about his salary, John Berg, Director of Finance/Board Secretary for the Mason City Community School District, was placed on paid administrative leave in recent days and will be replaced at a special board meeting Monday.
NIT learned that there has been confusion in the community about John Berg’s salary, leading to questions for Superintendent Michael Penca. NIT asked Mr. Penca if John Berg “is still in good-standing and fully employed, doing his job at the Mason City School District at this time?”
Mr. Penca answered back, saying “John Berg, Director of Finance/Board Secretary for the Mason City Community School District, was placed on paid administrative leave on June 2, 2017 effective through the remainder of his contract on June 30, 2017. The District is unable to comment on matters related to personnel issues.”
In the wake of the action taken by the Mason City School District to axe Berg, the School Board will meet Monday morning to find his replacement. At a special session scheduled for June 12 at 7 AM in the Administrative Center Board Room, the board will appoint an “Acting Board Secretary/Treasurer”.
John Berg, an accountant, got his new position as Board Secretary and Treasurer with the Mason City School District after Ramona Jeffrey retired in December of 2015. Berg was slated to receive a salary of $65,000 in fiscal year 2016. However, NIT has learned through our investigations that Berg came to be paid in excess of $80,000, leading to questions about how he came to be paid so much more than his allotted salary.
For fiscal year 2017, Berg, along with all the other school non-bargaining school district employees were approved a 3% raise (see Youtube video from June 20, 2016). NIT reached out to various sources connected to the Mason City School District seeking to find out how much Berg has been paid in fiscal year 2017. No one could give a definitive answer.
This latest shakeup in the district’s administration building comes after the board refused to give the District Superintendent job to Mr. Penca (who instead took a job in Arizona), who some felt has been too far under the tutelage of the mysterious Anita Micich. Further muddying the waters is the fact that, as NIT reported back in June of 2016, buried deep in the bowels of the sate’s bureaucratic mechanisms, is a potential bombshell audit involving Micich, Jeffrey – who Berg worked under for years – and others. Some in the community are confident that even though Micich unceremoniously left town after the board gave her the boot, she could very well end up back in Cerro Gordo county to answer for the way she doled out upwards of $70,000 in bonuses to Jeffrey and another retired administrator, Hal Minear.
PEOPLE ARE JUST TO GREEDY! LITTLE SLAP ON THE HAND AND THEY GET AWAY WITH IT. I’M SICK OF PEOPLE THINKING THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH STEALING MONEY!!!
Over 95% of all public servants (teachers included voted for Hillary Clinton) Alex Jones news – New Jersey high school removed Trumps name from all clothing that students wore while having their class pictures taken. Students and parents have demanded new class books to be published in original content with Trumps name appearing on those students clothing. Think these school personnel are not far left crazy.?
Bo! you are so far left and most likely a pubic servant – please list some of these private sector companies that give $30.000.00 retirement bonuses to their emloyees – maybe to the management slobs but the average joe blow is lucky not to get fired or laid off prior to his retirement date so they can screw him out of it. PS – your a PUKE person and full of democrap.
Money is the root of all evil.Some people in govt.jobs don’t know how lucky they are , it not like this at all companies now days either.Money is held onto much more conservative in private sector then it will ever be in govt.jobs.It’s always easier to spend other (taxpayers) $.And it proves a point it is always this way,most people just turn heads and don’t bitch until your read it later.And they think they are smarter then us.IDIOTS most of them got lucky it wasn’t just their resume that got them hired in first place.Right place at right time you got lucky and got yours and that is fine isn’t is that your thinking? Top Hat @ssbag
Berg’s salary for the 2015 – 2016 school year was $84,438.60. This information was published on July 30, 2016 in the legal classified section of the Globe Gazette.
Mason City School Salaries 2015
Jun 29, 2016
Search and view the salaries paid to employees of the Mason City School District
Name: Salary:Ascending
BERG, JACQUELINE $264.27
HUGGENBERGER, NICOLE $6,685.00
BERGMAN, DEBRA $15,597.95
BERGAN, JANE $15,821.96
BERGMAN, RENAE $51,742.75
BERG, JOHN $61,938.60
Information above Taken from Globe website reported out on June 29 2016.
The fiscal year is reported 1 year behind
Globe reported on 6/29/2016 for 2015.
They will report 2016 at the end of June 2017
I think you can see the 61,938.60…..
So would be interested for you to post the actual address to view
At least this board takes action who cares what private meetings are about if the next day some one is fired I would guess that is it, and if he stole money good riddance at least this board is cleaning it up and not letting our money go to ADMINSTRATION inflated wages as it is.
I KNOW ! These people retiring from the school system – even their mechanics received a bonus of $1000 per yer served – 1 of these received $30,000.00 on the day he retired. I did not know the private sector is that well off to afford these gifts ? I guess if the school board can set wages they can also approve these gifts/ Must be nice — PS did you know school board can also raise property taxes so I guess it does not matter what they spend because their is an unlimited amount of cash available to them.
It’s called early retirement bonus you moron. Private sector companies do the same thing. The reason they do it is to save money by allowing the higher salaried employees an incentive to retire so they can bring in new people for less money. Those younger people also save the district or company money on insurance costs. The board does have the power to determine how much is given but they do it only after doing the math to see if it is a good buyout. This board of ed is a good one. They do their homework and keep in mind who they are serving.
Does not surprise me – a public servant is also the same as an elected offiical – lives off the private sector – and it is very easy to confuse us with their lies and promises – drain the swamp and jail these thieves – Yea right! – but after Trump/Sessions put a number of them in jail and takes their assets it will be much easier to jail the local servants and elected officials who are corrupt. – take notice of what these people are doing and money they are gifted and you will have the answer. Hey mer and studly are you awake yet ?
Matt – Is this the reason the School Board went into closed session on June 1?
Call your school admin building and see if they will answer that. They won’t – because our school district is still wrapped in secrecy. It’s a bizarro world of taking from the taxpayers with little accountability. A reckoning may be in the works.
Thank you school Board. You are proactively dealing with very serious management issues. As you continue to move forward you will begin to rebuild and restore confidence in our public school system.
who better to line his pockets them the “keeper of the purse strings”
Find it interesting. That this board finds more and more corruption in our schools and actually does something. It’s about time. Clean house and start over.
Drain the swamp, right here in River City. You can’t tell me that other board members are not aware of all the corruption around them.
This is ridiculous. Crooks the whole lot of them.
its tax dollars, they are endless, just take more and more