Scandal aside, Ernie Fowler got the kind of retirement payout most people can only dream of.
The Illinois Policy Institute reported that the former Nashville Community High School District 99 superintendent walked away with a $64,540 bonus despite being forced to retire at the height of a growing controversy.
Calls for Fowler’s ouster came after he authored a column many considered completely out of bounds. In the Aug. 30 issue of the Nashville News, Fowler relived an episode from his days as a high schooler in which he described a female teenage volleyball player he had a crush on.
Ernie Fowler
“My eyes were in direct line with her well-developed assets which were hidden under a T-shirt with the word 'bullets' sprawled across the front,” Fowler wrote, the West Central News reported.
The public backlash against Fowler’s column was swift, with calls from the teachers union at Nashville High School demanding his immediate resignation or removal.
“I’m in a pickle,” Fowler said. “It was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but I probably went into too much detail. It’s amazing what one sentence of bad judgment can do to a person.”
Fowler and the newspaper later issued apologies, which largely fell on deaf ears, ultimately leading to the end of his days as a weekly columnist.
As for his bonus, the Belleville News-Democrat reported that it was almost as rare as it was extravagant. The newspaper said that bonuses for people of Fowler’s stature are relatively unheard of, including in the cases of five other recent superintendents. Others who did walk away with bonuses came nowhere near pocketing the amount Fowler did.
While some argue Fowler’s bonus was at least partly offered as an incentive for getting him to retire right away, there’s no denying that it came at a huge price.
Illinois schools continue to be overrun with high teacher salaries and bourgeoning debt that the institute estimates result in anywhere from $2 million to $6 million each over the course of their retirements.
Overall, the state has nearly 900 school districts, nearly half of which, like District 99, oversee up to two schools.
The institute estimated that by trimming some of the fat, the cash-strapped state could save up to $170 million in annual costs, not to mention anywhere from $3 billion to $4 billion in pension costs spread out over the next three decades.
Meanwhile, Fowler, whom the Nashville News has reported earned a salary of $145,220.08 during the 2015-16 school year, insists he wasn’t overly surprised by the backlash he faced.
“People tell me they love it, but I said to myself, as soon as I wrote something that offended someone I would no longer write it,” he said.
The West Central Reporter reported that comments to the articles ranged from readers blasting him as “a creepy old man” to being totally “unprofessional.”
The 56-year-old Fowler served 16 years as superintendent, first taking over in 1999. He retired in September.
Alerts Sign-up