Retirement payout for Wayne County Community College District leader? More than $700,000 – By David Jesse (freep.com) / Dec 10 2017
Should Curtis Ivery decide to step down from leading Wayne County Community College District when his contract is up in 2022, taxpayers will send him off with quite the retirement package — a deferred compensation check of more than $700,000,two annuities and a car, along with a state employee retirement benefit.
If he decides to stay past 2022 — that payout will grow by at least $48,000 each year, according to a contract stuffed with one-of-a-kind provisions.
As metro Detroit’s community colleges undergo another round of leadership changes, Ivery, 67, has brought long-term stability to WCCCD by leading the school district for more than 20 years.
Changes at the top of Macomb Community College, Oakland Community College and Henry Ford College either have been completed recently or are in progress. Community colleges are facing a slump in enrollment. The changes in leadership, coupled with the drop in enrollment and graduation rates, puts new focus on compensation for the schools’ top leaders.
(Salaries of Metro Detroit community college presidents)
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Housing stipend adds to pay, retirement
Of the community college leaders, Ivery’s contract stands out as the most complex and unique. The Free Press’ review showed that not only does Ivery — the longest-serving head of a Michigan community college — lead the field in terms of total compensation, he also is in line for far more compensation than any other Michigan community college leader when he eventually steps down from the school.
For instance, it’s not uncommon for community college presidents to get some sort of housing allowance, although it’s not as common at the community college level as it is at the four-year university level.
The most generous housing stipend in the state belongs to Ivery, who gets $48,000 per year, plus an unspecified amount to cover the association dues for his downtown Detroit residence. That’s at least three times as much as the next highest housing allowance — $15,000 a year for Washtenaw Community College President Rose Bellanca.
But, uniquely, Ivery’s contract calls for him to be paid deferred compensation equal to “the annual housing allowance he then receives for each partial or full year he has served as Chancellor since July 1, 2007 until the time of such resignation or retirement.”
That means, according to his contract, Ivery would get a check worth $720,000 if he stays until the 2022 expiration of his contract. The total could go up if his housing allowance is increased between now and his retirement.
In addition, when Ivery retires, he’ll take with him two annuities — one to which the college contributes $20,000 per year, and the other to which it contributes 15% of Ivery’s salary toward it each year. Meaning WCCCD will pay out more than $56,000 toward the annuities this year alone. In addition, WCCCD pays into the Michigan Public Schools Employees Retirement System on behalf of Ivery.
Not only are portions of Ivery’s contract unique in Michigan, the deal contains several provisions — including how his deferred compensation is structured — that experts who have studied hundreds of contracts say they have either never seen or have rarely seen before.
Ivery’s 17-page contract does contain many standard clauses and compensation items. His base salary of $243,221 is now the highest among community college leaders, although until Oakland Community College removed Timothy Meyer from its top spot last spring, Meyer made slightly more with a $253,000 base salary.
In addition to an increasing salary and housing allowance, Ivery’s contract has also changed the required vote makeup that would be needed should the board decide to fire him. That makeup has gone from from a simple majority of the board to a supermajority. Henry Ford College and Oakland Community College require a supermajority vote to get rid of their presidents or chancellors, but no others in Michigan do, a Free Press review of contracts shows. The Free Press obtained the contracts using the Freedom of Information Act.
WCCCD’s board members — in statements issued over the past years to the Free Press through college spokeswoman Tina Bassett — say Ivery’s contract is unique because he and WCCCD are unique.
“The Board determined Dr. Ivery has earned the contractual benefits provided to him for his more than twenty years of exemplary service,” Bassett said in an e-mail to the Free Press. “The Board further concluded that it is in the College’s and the Community’s best interests to secure Dr. Ivery’s continued employment/retention.
“WCCCD serves arguably the most challenged and diverse constituencies of any community college in the state. Meeting the educational needs of the citizens, businesses, and communities of Detroit and Wayne County requires unique leadership and collaborative skills. Quite simply, Dr. Ivery’s compensation package, as one of the longest-serving CEOs at one of the largest community colleges in the nation, and taking into account that WCCCD is the only community college serving a truly urban/metropolitan region, it is justified that Dr. Ivery’s compensation would be at a competitive level.”
When asked specifically about the deferred compensation provision, Bassett said Ivery’s contract “speaks for itself.”
Board member David Roehrig was the only board member to respond directly to the Free Press. He has voted “no” once on Ivery’s contract and abstained once since being elected to the board in November 2014. He voted that way, he said, because he wasn’t allowed to see the contract before voting on it.
He said the contract should be made openly available to the public.
“It should be up to the taxpayers to decide whether the contract is fair,” Roehrig said.
Marcus Cantwright, 42, of Detroit has taken classes at WCCCD and has a daughter currently attending. When a reporter told Cantwright about Ivery’s contract provisions, he had mixed feelings about it.
“I don’t have a problem with a big salary,” Cantwright said while he sat outside of WCCCD’s downtown campus earlier this fall waiting for his daughter. “If you can get it, get it. I mean you’re getting paid for doing work every day. That’s a lot of money though when he walks away. Seems like there’s a lot of other stuff you could do with that — maybe pay more financial aid?”
Ivery’s lucrative contract
Judith Wilde and James Finkelstein at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government have studied hundreds of contracts for heads of colleges and universities. Ivery’s contract contains a number of provisions that aren’t common, Finkelstein and Wilde said. Those include:
- A provision that when Ivery retires the district will either buy the car he is currently driving and give it to Ivery, or obtain a new five-year lease on a car for Ivery, whichever he prefers.
“We’ve seen it before where a president gets a car, but it’s not common” Finkelstein said. “What’s more unusual is that if he doesn’t like the current one, he can get a new one. We’ve seen it where the chancellor or president has the option to buy the car he or she is currently driving from the college or assume the lease payments.”
At Schoolcraft College, in Livonia, President Conway Jeffress has the option to buy the vehicle the college provides to him when he leaves the school, according to his contract.
- A provision specifically spelling out that Ivery gets to hire four senior positions, including the vice chancellor for finance and administration.
Finkelstein and Wilde said they had never seen such a specific provision before. They said the good part of the provision is that it mandates those people’s contract are “co-terminus” with Ivery’s contract. That means their contracts all end at the same time as Ivery’s.
“Dr. Ivery’s position regarding his employment contract remains the same,” Bassett said. “Students always come first. Dr. Ivery is singularly focused on implementing the mission of the College as is required by his employment contract.”
What other presidents earn
Community colleges are largely funded by property tax millages.
Oakland Community College had $172.2 million in operating expenses during the 2015-16 year, according to the latest financial audit available. WCCCD had $143.7 million in operating expenses during the same time period.
There has been change recently at three other metro Detroit community colleges — one a planned transition, one a moved-up resignation and another a surprise.
At OCC, chancellor Timothy Meyer was forced out suddenly in May. Peter Provenzano took over on an interim basis. Meyer was being paid $253,877. Provenzano is being paid $220,000.
Provenzano also gets:
- $320 a month for an auto stipend
- $1,000 a month for “professional obligations”
At Macomb Community College, Jim Jacobs stepped down at the end of the 2016-17 school year after 50 years at the school in a variety of positions. James Sawyer was promoted to take over and makes $225,000 a year.
Sawyer also gets:
- $500,000 in term life insurance
- 10% of base salary in deferred compensation
- $1,500 a month in an expense allowance.
- Expense-free use of an auto
At Henry Ford, Stanley Jensen announced in April 2017 that he would retire at the end of June 2018. On Nov. 29, Jensen announced he would leave Henry Ford on Dec. 15 to take a position at a community college in Iowa. On Tuesday, the college’s board announced it appointed John Satkowski as the interim president.
Who is succeeding?
When Ivery arrived in 1995 from Mountain View College of the Dallas County (Texas) Community College District, he was the third president at WCCCD in five years. He came to a school that was notorious for turmoil that included lawsuits, administrators who came and went, and infighting on the board of trustees. He also came with hopes of both growing the college and stabilizing its leadership. Armed with a doctorate in higher education administration from the University of Arkansas, he has done both in the past two decades and that’s why he deserves the contract he currently has, the board said in its statement to the Free Press.
Ivery has expanded services and overseen growth in the number of programs offered and the number of students taking classes in his time at the school.
“I knew we could grow immediately,” Ivery told the Free Press in 2015. “I really felt people would buy in. I knew that people wanted access to education. They had worked in the plants and had good salaries, but they knew that wasn’t going to be around for their children.
“We had to make sure we had the right programs in place.”
Yet, WCCCD — like the Detroit Public Schools Community District from which it gets a big share of its students — has struggled with student success numbers.
Its most recent six-year success rates — as compiled by the State of Michigan’s Center for Education Performance and Information — show WCCCD at the bottom of all the state’s community colleges.
For those who enrolled in 2010-11, six years later, only 23.2% of students had either graduated with a two-year degree or transferred to a four-year school. That means of the 8,691 students in that cohort, 1,263 had enrolled in a four-year school and 704 had gotten a two-year degree six years later.
No other community college in the state had a rate lower than 30%. The state average is 42.9%.
While many Michigan community college leaders have bonuses in their contract, none have them explicitly tied to success rates.
Oakland Community College, which had the biggest degree-seeking enrollment in the state, about 5,000 students more than WCCCD, had a success rate of 46.6%.
Schoolcraft College had a success rate of 47.3%; Macomb Community College had a success rate of 48%; Henry Ford College had a rate of 37.6% and Washtenaw Community College had a rate of 50%.
Bassett said the state statistics don’t accurately reflect what is going on inside the classrooms on WCCCD’s campuses.
“We serve a very diverse population, many of whom come to us because we are their only pathway to educational and career success,” Bassett said in an email to the Free Press. “We are an open door institution, and many of the students who come to us are underserved and underemployed.
“Although these measures are adopted by CEPI, it is not a fair depiction of student success. As well, the CEPI measures only two of many success factors for an urban community college.
“We are very proud of the success of our students and graduates. Many have educational goals that are not related to the two measures of CEPI — associate degree completion and university transfer. Many of our students succeed because they find meaningful employment through our continuing education and workforce development programs.”
Frank Moorehouse, 51, of Belleville has a son at WCCCD and has taken classes at Oakland and Macomb community colleges before. He’s OK with big pay for leaders — provided they are getting results.
“If you are really doing a good job,” he said, “then you should get paid for it. But if you aren’t, then you shouldn’t. We’re paying for it — we (taxpayers) should be able to see results.”
Success rates for Michigan community colleges: https://drive.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=http://media.freep.com/uploads/news/Curtis_Ivery.pdf
