County
GV School Board Needs Major Re-examination
April 11, 2010 
When Garden Valley School District voters go to the polls on Thursday the 15th to vote in the recall election to unseat board member Terry Elmore they need to take a broad view of what they want in a school district and who they want to deliver it.
The late Senator Frank Church, as chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee once discussed foreign policy with the GUARDIAN editor. He confided, “It doesn’t take much to determine policy, but it takes an expert to implement that policy.”
Same is true in GV. The School Board needs to re-examine the operation, set policies and have their “expert” implement those policies. In a community where the School Superintendent is well educated and by far the highest paid public official it can be intimidating for volunteer elected Board members to assert their legal dominance and direct their Super to do as they say. It is tempting to “just let him do his job” without telling his duties.
One assertion (presented as “fact”) by a reader was the District serves about 250 students and the Super makes $80K a year. One reader also complained of top-heavy administration posts. Michael Tomlin is apparently paid for a four day week and also has a private CONSULTING BUSINESS which promises to NEVER divulge a client and offers “24/7 availability.” Even with a cell phone on your belt, it is pretty hard to be servant of two masters without cutting into loyalty of at least one of them.
Without regard to who is on or off the Board, the members should demand a client list from their underling to insure there are no conflicts of interest. One would expect the Super to avoid conflicts. However, like foreign policy they should “TRUST, BUT VERIFY.”
A point to ponder: the existing board gets to choose a replacement if a recall is successful!
One of the nice things about a blog like the GUARDIAN is the ability to provide a forum for opposing views and shed light on elements of a story previously unknown or considered like the previous post and subsequent comments. We don’t have a dog in the fight and offer no endorsements or guidance on election choices. We offer space to one of the principals for factual clarification.
UPDATE 6PM SUNDAY
Dr. Tomlin responds:
First, my salary does not approach $80K. I am paid $9.00 a day more than I would earn as a teacher, and work twelve months – so I work more days. Fact. Verifiable. End of that story.
My Contract says nothing about a four-day week, rather it is a .8 FTE as reported to the State Department of Education, and my salary is set at a lower rate per percentage of FTE than that of my predecessor. Fact. Verifiable. End of that story.
Second, an examination of my consulting practice shows that I write, train, teach, and help people with their communications. Posts here have focused on one part of my business.
My client list – zero. Since moving from Boise, and fully engaging the building project of the new school, and the needs of the district here I have taken no clients in those 17 months, and have no remaining clients. I earned no income and represented no clients in 2009, and thus have no conflicts of interest. Simply put, my consulting practice died of neglect due to the time and energy it took to build our new school. My choice, but also a fact. Verifiable. End of that story.
Full disclosure – every three months or so I conduct training at the request of the State Division of Professional Technical Education, in their Certified Public Manager program. Trainings are 1-2 days in length and I receive a stipend from the State for that. I am allowed those days off by the Board since I am .8 FTE.
I hope this is helpful.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Apr 11, 2010, 2:25 pm
Thank You! Finally, an attempt at fair and balanced reporting regarding this issue.
Apr 11, 2010, 4:29 pm
I think that was well said. One thing that people are forgetting is our rights as voters, which is why I do not approve of a recall election. We the voters voted Mrs. Elmore into her position when we held the election. yes, we have the right to get her recalled if we choose…however, by doing so, you now allow the BOARD to appoint her replacement, which in turn, takes away the rights of the voters in her zone, to elect who THEY want. To me, the bottom line is, if you are unhappy with the job that is representing you, then you make efforts to contact them to discuss what you are unhappy about. IF you are still unhappy, when it’s time for them to run again, you vote against them, and find someone to run against them. recalling is total nonsense, and a total waste of good tax payers money. in a time when schools are struggling to keep ends met, trying to scramble and find out where they will find the money to keep all staff on board next year, as well as keep all programs up & running, we are wasting money on recall elections. And yet we’re “helping” the school? keep your personal opinions out of it, and think about the kids, and what the proper “steps” are.
Apr 11, 2010, 4:41 pm
It is convential wisdom that discussed parties should stay away from these forums. But then sometimes an occasional fact can help the conversation.
I will not offer nor discuss opinions but facts are easy.
First, my salary does not approach $80K. I am paid $9.00 a day more than I would earn as a teacher, and work twelve months – so I work more days. Fact. Verifiable. End of that story.
My Contract says nothing about a four-day week, rather it is a .8 FTE as reported to the State Department of Education, and my salary is set at a lower rate per percentage of FTE than that of my predecessor. Fact. Verifiable. End of that story.
Second, an examination of my consulting practice shows that I write, train, teach, and help people with their communications. Posts here have focused on one part of my business.
My client list – zero. Since moving from Boise, and fully engaging the building project of the new school, and the needs of the district here I have taken no clients in those 17 months, and have no remaining clients. I earned no income and represented no clients in 2009, and thus have no conflicts of interest. Simply put, my consulting practice died of neglect due to the time and energy it took to build our new school. My choice, but also a fact. Verifiable. End of that story.
Full disclosure – every three months or so I conduct training at the request of the State Division of Professional Technical Education, in their Certified Public Manager program. Trainings are 1-2 days in length and I receive a stipend from the State for that. I am allowed those days off by the Board since I am .8 FTE.
I hope this is helpful.
Apr 11, 2010, 6:19 pm
Agreed Middle Man. It really is our responsibility and I am looking forward to everything coming to a head so we can move on to something more positive.
I have had my own personal interactions with several of the people in question and have made up my own mind based on what I know – not what I hear and certainly not what is written in The Idaho World.
I firmly believe there are ways to settle differences and I sincerely hope we are on the way to getting that done.
Apr 11, 2010, 7:36 pm
A little research here – the state lists all supt.’s salaries and your GV sup makes $8,000 less than Idaho City, and $20,000 less than Horse Shoe Bend – last year, don’t have the number on the new one there.
EDITOR NOTE– Thanks Boisewriter. We honestly tried to find the data, but couldn’t locate it. The GV site isn’t very helpful.
Apr 11, 2010, 8:32 pm
@ Boisewriter:
Thanks for the data. When the GV sup’s contract came up for renewal this year, he declined to take the yearly increase that’s written into his contract. So his salary is the same as last year.
Apr 11, 2010, 9:59 pm
@Boisewriter. Good to know – are they full time? And $8K less than what? GVgal – also good to know since we are facing budget cuts this year. Classy thing to do.
Apr 12, 2010, 3:37 pm
Ouridaho.com is where you can locate the wages of any state or local employee. This site uses the Public Records act to obtain all this information. According to their website Michael Tomlin, Superintendent makes $72,000 a year as of 3/12/2010.
Apr 13, 2010, 11:47 am
I find Mr. Tomlin’s “Fact. Verifiable. End of Story.” comments quite interesting. So, his “salary doesn’t approach $80K,” huh?
Thanks to the Idaho Freedom Foundation, it IS verifiable, and Mr. Tomlin isn’t being truthful. According to http://www.ouridaho.com, his salary as Superintendent is $72,000 a year. If that doesn’t “approach” $80 K a year, I don’t know what does.
Multiply $9 x 365 days (which is actually a lot more days than a teacher works a year), but is the difference between what Mr. Tomlin says he makes and what a teacher makes (he said he makes $9 more a day than a teacher). Well, $9 x 365 is $3,285. How many $68,715 a year teachers do they have up there in Garden Valley? Where do I apply?
Apr 13, 2010, 4:24 pm
Kent Marmon – Something’s strange on the website (ourid.com), there are two listings for GV school district, and each shows Dr Tomlin‘s annual salary. However, there is a big difference between the two;
Garden Valley School District #71 shows $45,808 as of 9/1/2009
Garden Valley School District shows $72,000 as of 3/12/2010
Which one is correct? One of these has to be a typo….
Apr 13, 2010, 5:00 pm
Boisewriter – just to clarify your data. According to ouridaho.com our super makes $2800 less than Idaho City and $3716 more than HSB. Not sure if they are full or part time supers but apparently they are all pretty much the same. I’m actually sorry I brought it up as it really didn’t have anything to do with the topic at hand. Just had a personal uneasiness over the side business which Mr. Tomlin has clarified that is pretty much defunct.
Apr 13, 2010, 6:23 pm
Kent,
It’s not my horse, as my interest is always public records, law, etc., but your math formula is wrong.
Take a GV $51,000 teacher and divide by 190 days for their contract to determine their daily rate.
Multiply the teacher’s daily rate by 260 days for a 12 month employee and you come closer. Remember the 12 month employee gets paid vacation and does not get spring break, two weeks at Christmas, etc., so they have far more days total.
Done a bunch of these for the Union. Hope it helps.