It's Salary Season Again at Dallas ISD

It's déjà vu all over again as, once more, the Dallas Independent School District board of trustees is set to take up the issue of giving a raise to its chief academic officer. That's only the third time in less than two years this issue's come up. Perhaps you call last year's ruckus, when trustees unwittingly OK'd superintendent Michael Hinojosa and then-trustee Ron Price's proposal to give a $28,225 raise to Robin Ryan, who briefly held the title back then and was making around $160,000, mostly due to inexperience. Trustees took back the dough after giving the super a tongue-lashing. Ish.

In June of this year, then-Northwest Learning Community supervisor Ivonne Durant took the CAO gig, at which point Hinojosa wanted once again to bump the salary back to $184,000, which is what most DISD chiefs make. Trustees weren't prepared to go that high and instead settled on $170,000. But a mere five months later a raise is back on the agenda: Next week the trustees will discuss an board briefing item that bumps the salary to $185,000 -- which is around $3,000 more than what Denise Collier made when she held the chief academic officer's title before retiring in December 2008.

Also on the agenda, salary proposals for the chief financial officer and chief human capital officer. At present, CFO Larry Throm makes around $265,000. But Throm's outta here in a couple of weeks, and the district's searching high and low for his replacement. Which is why the agenda item says "salary to be negotiated." But the chief human capital officer would make $185,000 if the board OK's it. "Chief human capital officer"? That's head of human resources, right?