The Manheim Central School Board, without debate or public input, quietly awarded $25,000 in bonuses to five of the district's highest-paid officials in August, records show.

Details of the bonuses, disclosed last week, are providing critics — who already were angry about another $40,000 in extra payments to 17 administrators — with a fresh set of complaints about district spending.

"There's no justification for this," said Kevin M. Patrick, a member of the grassroots watchdog group Manheim Central Taxpayers Alliance.

"Six months ago they had this huge budget deficit, they needed to close an elementary school, they're not hiring teachers and school nurses," Patrick said. "But apparently they had enough discretionary money to give out bonuses."

Superintendent Carol Saylor, who is paid $134,561 and was among the five administrators to get a $5,000 bonus, defended the extra payments. She said the money was for extra work to make sure the district's new $38 million middle school opened on time this year.

"Most of them," she said, referring to those who received the $5,000 bonuses, "were here far beyond a seven-hour work day all of last year."

The school board approved the bonuses by a voice vote in August. The item was listed vaguely as an addendum on that month's agenda, as "revised administrative and support staff salaries."

In addition to Saylor, those receiving the $5,000 bonuses were:

• business administrator George Ioannidis, whose salary is $103,568.

• technology director Christopher Gantz, whose salary is $77,282.

• facilities director Samuel Parks, whose salary is $72,171.

• and assistant business manager Kristee Reichard, whose salary is $67,949.

Asked what she and her fellow administrators did to earn the bonuses, Saylor said: "All the things that go along with getting a brand-new middle school up and running. The technology director did all of the wiring. Sam Parks, the building and ground director ... I think what he did goes without saying."

Those five also were among 17 administrators paid bonuses of $2,222 last month for their work mentoring 8th-grade students in the 2006-07 school year, according to financial records obtained by Patrick and his watchdog group.

"You don't expect these large bonuses to be paid to already highly paid administrators, with taxpayer money," Patrick said. He and several other activists plan to put pressure on the school board to end the practice at its meeting tonight.

Saylor has said the $2,222 bonuses were paid to the administrator-mentors because they helped students who had been struggling to meet academic standards in reading and math improve their standardized test scores. Some of those who mentored students had never taught, including the business manager and food service director.

"They met with students on a regular basis and checked on things like: was their homework completed? How did they do on the last test? Were there homework assignments they needed help with?" Saylor said. "They did the basic kinds of things that tutors would do."

The superintendent has said the district has paid out such bonuses in past years as well, and that they are common. However, most of the county's 16 public school districts do not have such a practice.

The Manheim Central school board's president and vice president could not be reached for comment this morning. The board meets at 7:30 p.m. at the district office, 71 N. Hazel Street, Manheim.

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