positive message with pay raise

Butler County Superintendent Mike Looney received a well-justified three percent pay raise from the Board of Education on Thursday night.

While the increase in pay is not really significant, (an approximate $3,000 increase over his current $102,000 annual salary), the action taken by the Board sends a message of recognition for Looney's efforts over the course of the last year.

It also exhibits a firm fact: Our Board of Education is behind our superintendent. One need only look north to Montgomery and the current climate in that city's school system to understand the importance of cooperation between board members and their top administrator. When differences of opinion and ideas cannot be overcome, it truly is the students who suffer the most.

For years it seemed as if schools in Butler County was working as single entities rather than part of a greater system. Looney was the enthusiastic &#8220shot in the arm” this county needed to pull everyone together and have them work from the same page. The results, in just a year, have been nothing short of astounding.

Cooperation - whether between the board and superintendent, principal and faculty, teachers and students - is the key contributor towards making progress.

In a school system the size of Butler County, great ideas mean little without it.