When Candis Finan, Ed.D., retired as Delaware Valley superintendent last year, she left with the respect of the school board, a legacy of high expectations and a payout of more than $500,000.
That's on top of annual payments for unused vacation, sick and personal days since 1998, bringing her total payout to more than $800,000.
Dr. Finan, who spent 14 years as superintendent and 13 years as assistant superintendent of the Pike County school district, led the district through major expansion and building projects and into an era of increased accountability and higher standards.
She joins a growing list of Northeast Pennsylvania school chiefs who have received six-figure payouts at retirement. In the past five years, more than $2 million in taxpayer money has been paid to retiring top administrators.
Dr. Finan's payment comes at a time when districts are facing deep cuts in state funding. But Delaware Valley officials say the district was prepared for the payout, earned after 31 years at the district.
Contract details
Dr. Finan's contract called for her to receive:
- $199,334.26 for unused sick leave and $138,475.57 for unused vacation days accrued prior to July 1, 1998. Dr. Finan was paid the full per-diem rate of her June 2010 salary for the days accrued, even those accrued 30 years ago. Dr. Finan's per-diem rate was about $774.
Read Dr. Finan's contract HERE
- $2,000 for each year of service as a Delaware Valley administrator, for a total of $62,000.
- An early retirement incentive of $100,610, which is 50 percent of her final annual salary of $201,220.
The payment of $500,419.83 is in addition to yearly payments she received for unused days accrued after July 1, 1998. In 15 years, Dr. Finan was paid $318,734.71 for unused sick, vacation and personal days. The payment also includes $30,956.80 for 2012-13 days. Although she retired in August, she earned those days automatically on July 1, according to district officials.
Dr. Finan describes herself as a "workaholic," and records show that from the 2005-06 school year to the day she retired, she took one vacation day, no personal days and only two sick days.
When the last 15 years of payments for accrued days are considered, total payments for accrued days and retirement payouts total $819,154.54.
Other payouts
The allowance for accrued days, and payment for them at retirement, mirrors the contracts of many school chiefs who have recently retired.
When Valley View Superintendent Joseph Daley retired in 2011, he had a total payout of more than $300,000, which included $182,690.46 for unused sick and vacation days. Carbondale Area School District Superintendent Dominick Famularo, Ed.D., departed last year with a retirement package worth more than $300,000.
Fred Rosetti, Ed.D., the retired director of the Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit, expected to receive a total of $623,000 - $143,000 in a retirement incentive and $480,000 in accrued sick and vacation days. The NEIU board later decided Dr. Rosetti was ineligible for the retirement incentive. He is now facing federal fraud, theft and money laundering charges for crimes he is accused of committing during his tenure.
Most contracts for newer superintendents no longer allow for payment for unlimited accrued days at a per diem rate. Some contracts allow for superintendents to accrue only a year's worth of vacation, and other contracts allow no payment for accrued days at all.
John Bell, a former administrator in the Port Jervis City School District in New York, replaced Dr. Finan. His contract will not be as lucrative.
His salary is $170,000 this year, a $30,000 decrease from Dr. Finan's final rate.
He can accumulate up to 60 vacation days, and he can receive payment for up to 10 days at the end of the school year. Any vacation not used, up to a maximum of 83 days, will be paid at his per diem rate at time of separation.
Mr. Bell can accumulate his five personal days and 10 sick days per year, but he would only receive $85 per day for unused days - not his per diem rate at time of separation.
District solicitor Michael Weinstein said the economic state of the district dictated the contract.
"These are different times," he said.
School Board President Bill Greenlaw, who has served on the board since December 2011, helped negotiate Mr. Bell's contract.
Dr. Finan's contract was "somewhat typical" of contracts first negotiated in the 1990s, in which superintendents could accrue unlimited days, Mr. Greenlaw said.
The economic climate, as well as media coverage of lucrative superintendent payouts, impacted Mr. Bell's contract, Mr. Greenlaw said.
A new law that limits superintendent buyouts does not apply to Dr. Finan's contract because she received a payout for accrued days, and not a buyout for leaving the district.
District prepared
Jack Fisher, a certified public accountant who is chairman of the board's budget and finance committee, was on the board when Dr. Finan became superintendent in 1998.
Dr. Finan replaced James Melody as superintendent, after the board bought out his contract for about $500,000, Mr. Fisher said.
The board worked out an arrangement with Dr. Finan in which days she had accrued prior to her appointment as superintendent would be paid at her retirement. That way, the district did not deplete reserves at the same time Mr. Melody was getting paid, Mr. Fisher said. Dr. Finan's salary was a "relatively modest" salary of about $95,000 a year, which accounted for the days she would receive at retirement.
"We were setting money aside," he said. "We knew all about it."
Other Delaware Valley administrators also get paid for accrued days. The district keeps about $2 million in its internal services fund, which is set aside to pay for the accrued days.
School directors are given a spreadsheet each year with employees names and how much accrued time they have. The district, which has not had a tax increase in six years, makes sure it has enough in the fund to cover the full amount, Mr. Fisher said.
The district has also recently changed the benefits of other administrators, and now requires principals and other supervisors to take at least two weeks of their vacation each year, instead of letting it accrue, Mr. Fisher said. The amount they are paid for sick days is also limited.
"The board philosophy has changed. The economic times have changed," Mr. Fisher said. "We're approaching it in a different fashion."
Economic times also led to teachers and administrators recently agreeing to a two-year pay freeze. Dr. Finan took a $20,000 pay cut for her last two years of employment.
But Dr. Finan earned the payout she was given, Mr. Fisher said.
"She dedicated her life to the Delaware Valley School District. You cannot say enough about the culture she brought to the school... she had higher expectations for herself, for students, for teachers. Excellence and high expectations was her motto," he said. "She was extraordinary. I wish she could work forever."
Dedicated career
Dr. Finan retired in August, after a 39-year career in education, with 31 of those years at Delaware Valley.
During her tenure, the district saw its population soar, with people moving from New York and New Jersey to establish full-time residences in the northern region of the Poconos.
When Dr. Finan arrived, the district had 1,600 students. At its high point, the district had more than 6,000. She oversaw the creation of 23 Advanced Placement courses and 27 building projects, from roof renovations to new schools. One of her first initiatives as assistant superintendent in the 1980s was to create full-day kindergarten, which Dr. Finan said was the first full-day program in the state.
"All of that doesn't just happen. It's all part of the big plan," she said last week. "I was very involved. I was hands-on. I knew what was happening. I was part of every decision. I wanted it to be right, so I was involved, and it went better with my involvement."
One of the first women to hold the position in the region, and the state, she was determined to work hard and prove herself.
"I always had a passion to raise the high academic standards, to make sure students had a chance for a good future," she said.
A self-described "workaholic," she used her holiday vacations as time to be with her children and her husband, Tom, who retired as the district's director of secondary education. School holidays did not count as her own vacation days, and during summers, she was too busy preparing for the next year to take an extended vacation, she said.
Her contract has always been public information, she said.
"I agreed to it. The board agreed to it. I'm a really humble person, but I think I took the district from a pretty much unknown entity to a very well-respected entity today ... academically, athletically and co-curricularly," she said.
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