ALTON FRAILEY LEAVES  WITH FULL POCKETS:

Frailey Earned More Than 400K in Final Months

November 9, 2016

By Sebastian Herrera

KATY (Houston Chronicle) – Former Katy ISD superintendent Alton Frailey made more than $400,000 in total compensation this year before officially retiring in August, a sum that records obtained show is about $88,000 more than the total compensation he received in 2015 and much more than his base salary.

Frailey made roughly $337,770 in total compensation during the 2015 calendar year and then about $425,850 from January to August this year. Both numbers are thousands more than the base salary that existed in Frailey’s contract – with some base salaries being misleading about how much superintendents actually earn – and the figures are a result of extra ways in which Frailey received money from the district.

He made a base salary of $322,171 for the 2015-2016 school year, but he earned more from financial benefits such as a monthly “business expenses” allowance and annuities and life insurance paid for by the district.

The $88,000 increase in total compensation from the 2015 calendar year to this year is reflective of income received through accrued unused leave days and health benefits stated in Frailey’s retirement agreement, said Katy ISD spokesperson Maria Corrales DiPetta.

The agreement says that Frailey would be paid “for any and all accrued but unused leave days (including, without limitation, state, local, personal, vacation, non-duty or otherwise classified leave days).”

The agreement also states that Frailey would receive about $6,700 to pay health insurance and long-term disability costs until the end of this year, as well as any expenses up to $10,000 for Frailey to move homes.

Frailey also received an additional $22,000 each school year from 2010-2016 and will receive $35,000 this school year from annuity benefits, according to Yolanda Edmond, the district's assistant superintendent for human resources.

Frailey's pay in base salary alone ranked as the 11th highest in the state for independent school districts for the 2015-2016 school year. Base salaries, however, can often be starting points to how much superintendents earn per year when all of the benefits and bonuses are weighbed.

KISD Superintendent Lance Hindt's base salary is $375,000, according to his contract. Unlike Frailey, though, Hindt's contract does not have the possibility for benefits such as business expenses, making his contract and total earned easier to interpret.

Three comments were posted on the repost of this story on www.CoveringKaty.com:

Just Thinking

November 10, 2016 at 4:33 pm

Say what you will the only reason Alton got this money was due to our generous school board. The same board who this year says we are on hard times and teachers and staff will get less than a one percent increase in wages. At the same time these same teachers and staff persons will be required to fund a higher percentage of their pension plan and they face higher insurance premiums and higher copays and deducts. The net for many will be NEGATIVE to their bottom line earnings.

Also please remember the current school board members who refused to split out the stadium on the past bond package and are not telling us that we should have realized the stadium would be twenty million over budget. How stupid can we be? Evidently in their minds the answer is shown by their actions.

I don’t fault Alton for asking for a deal. I fault the BOT members for folding to his demands. Board members must have thought there was no one else in the district or in America who might take the job for a salary as low as his.

Westside Bill is right and so is George Scott.

Let’s get Mr. Scott some help on the school board this next May when three seats are up for grabs.

westsidebill

November 9, 2016 at 10:37 pm

I believe we can all agree that Big Al earned every single penny – and probably much more – of that money. Let’s just be glad we had him working for us as long as he did – without him where would KISD be?

Cynthia Blackman

November 10, 2016 at 3:48 pm

We all need to see the fact that Frailey left office with a substantial sum of taxpayer money that was not accounted for, was not budgeted for and could have been better appropriated for the academic needs of the student population of KISD.

We must recall that Frailey was not as qualified for the position of superintendent as the prior superintendent. Frailey only had a master’s degree, but the board was impressed that he had gotten ‘a stadium’ built in Cincinnati.

As we look at Frailey’s tenure we do not see our enrolled students’ scores soaring off the sheets. Just ask our newest school board member, George Scott, to shed light on that data.

So as far as this taxpayer is concerned Frailey has done no favors to this district except to push “the world’s largest stadium” on we the taxpayers; pun intended.