School board docks mayor’s teacher pay
Jeff Gore said he and his wife misunderstood district’s time-off policy.
The mayor of Huber Heights and his wife have lost several days of pay from their Huber Heights City Schools jobs as discipline for improperly taking personal days.
Mayor Jeff Gore, a teacher in the district, said the couple misunderstood the policy. He said they used what are essentially sick days for a trip to Los Angeles for a National League of Cities conference last month.
Jeff Gore is docked six days worth of pay, which will be administered as “suspension without pay for ... disciplinary reasons,” according to Thursday’s board meeting agenda.
His wife, Toni Gore, also a district employee, is docked four days pay, according to the agenda.
Neither Gore will be required to miss additional days as part of the suspension. “We’re just giving those days back without pay that we were representing the city in LA,” Jeff Gore said.
Toni Gore’s trip to California was not paid for by the city, the mayor said.
Jeff Gore said the days appeared to be discretionary, “because there’s no approval ever needed,” though he said school administrators were aware the Gores were taking the trip.
“The only reason that I did that is because it’s quite common practice in the district where teachers use their days for any number of reasons, being sick just being one of them,” Jeff Gore said.
Toni Gore earned a base salary of $79,396 in 2017, according to the Dayton Daily News’ annual analysis of government payroll data. Salary data for Jeff Gore was not available. He was previously a substitute teacher and is in his first year as a full-time teacher.
“I’d like to give my sincere apology to the schools, and residents for any embarrassment caused to the city and the schools,” Jeff Gore said in a Facebook post.