Philadelphia schools chief took advance pay for vacation days

Philadelphia schools chief Arlene Ackerman has collected cash for six days' vacation pay ahead of schedule.

Ackerman's contract gives her nearly seven weeks' vacation annually - 34 days in total. She can trade four of those days for money every year.

But district documents obtained by The Inquirer show that Ackerman, who has headed the district since June 2008, has been paid for 18 days - six more than she had earned.

Ackerman confirmed the payment Friday, saying, "I don't apologize for that. It was within my rights - that was the interpretation of the lawyers."

Ackerman took her first payout of $4,980.84 - for four days - on Feb. 12, 2009, presumably for the 2008-09 school year.

A second check, also for $4,980.84, was cut on July 2, 2009, shortly after a new fiscal year began.

A third payout of $12,452.11 - the equivalent of 10 days' salary - was made on Dec. 4, 2009.

Ackerman had already received payment for four days for each of the two school years in which she had served, ostensibly making the payment an advance. Her contract with the district has no language that allows for an advance of vacation pay.

The contract states that "the school district will reimburse Dr. Ackerman annually for up to four (4) unused days of vacation at her daily rate based on her then annual salary."

When the new fiscal year began on July 1, Ackerman would have become eligible for four of the 10 days paid out in December 2009. The remaining six days will not be earned until 2012 and 2013.

At her current salary, six days' vacation pay amounts to $7,471.26.

The vacation pay comes on top of Ackerman's $338,000 annual salary and the $65,000 performance bonus she was paid this spring. If she stays through June, she gets a $100,000 retention bonus.

In response to Inquirer questions about the payments, general counsel Michael A. Davis gave a statement.

Davis wrote that Ackerman's contract allows her to receive reimbursement for 20 days over the life of the contract, which expires June 30, 2013.

"This option was provided to Dr. Ackerman in recognition of the fact that she would only use a fraction of her vacation days," Davis wrote.

When she got the payment, "Dr. Ackerman was advised that, if she should leave prior to June 30, 2013, she may owe the school district a reconciling payment for the vacation days reimbursed in advance at that time," he said.

Robert L. Archie, chair of the School Reform Commission, said he agreed with Davis.

"The general counsel said she's entitled to it, and that's fine with me," Archie said.

Davis' opinion has not resulted in a change to Ackerman's contract, however.

In an interview, Ackerman said she was brought out of retirement to get results and is paid accordingly.

"I give 24 hours a day, seven days a week," she said. "I hope people can move past focusing on me and look at the results."

She spoke at an event celebrating the district's state test results. For the first time since Pennsylvania began keeping track under the federal No Child Left Behind law, more than 50 percent of city schoolchildren met standards in reading and math. There was also a 33 percent jump in the number of schools that met their goals, to 158 of 267 schools.

To Zack Stalberg, head of the Committee of Seventy, a government watchdog group, the advance payout was a poor move, even considering the scores.

"It's unseemly and probably inappropriate for her to have received these days," Stalberg said. "It's public money, and she's already getting extremely well compensated. It's very difficult to understand why she would need an advance payment on these vacation days, which she hasn't yet earned."

Still, Stalberg said, he is impressed.

"In my next life," he said, "I want to be a school superintendent in Philadelphia."

Former schools chief Paul Vallas was not allowed to cash in vacation days during his tenure, but he did receive payment for unused vacation time when he left the district. Vallas had 30 vacation days a year to Ackerman's 34.

Ackerman's contract also allows her to be paid for unused vacation time when she leaves the district.

Charles Elson, director of the Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, said he was unfamiliar with the practice of paying chief executives for vacation days even in the private sector.

"CEOs are typically paid a lot for their work, but it's a 24/7 job," he said. "That strikes me as a little odd."

Some highlights of Arlene Ackerman's five-year contract to run Philadelphia's 265 public schools:

Base salary: $338,000. She is eligible for raises equal to those given to teachers. On Sept. 1, teachers' salaries go up 3 percent.

Performance bonus: If Ackerman meets goals determined by her and the School Reform Commission, she receives up to 20 percent of her

annual salary.

Retention bonus: If she stays through June 30, she receives $100,000.

Vacation days: 34. She may trade four for cash every year, but so far has been paid for six more vacation days than she has earned. The district's general counsel says that's OK, as long as she pays the money back if she leaves the district before June 30, 2013, when her contract expires.

Retirement: Ackerman gets the same retirement benefits given to high-level school district employees, and must pay into the retirement plan administered by the state. In addition, the district pays $65,000 annually into other plans for her retirement.

Extras: The district pays for a car, a BlackBerry, a cell phone and usage, a laptop, and a printer. EndText