RICHMOND, Va. -- The man in charge of facilities for Richmond Public Schools (RPS) received a $30,000 raise between August 2021 and August 2022, according to information the CBS 6 Problem Solvers received through a public records request. Bobby Hathaway's salary was $118,937 on August 15, 2021, and by August 15, 2022, his salary was $149,314 those records showed.
The increase was unanimously approved in May by the Richmond School Board at the recommendation of the administration, sources told the Problem Solvers.
CBS 6 Problem Solver Melissa Hipolit learned about the raise after she uncovered dozens of instances of school staff throughout RPS submitting work orders for fire alarm panel issues to the facilities department and those problems going unfixed.
Fox Elementary School was among the schools that had fire alarm panels that were not testing properly. Fire destroyed Fox in February 2022.
Emails obtained by Hipolit through a Freedom of Information Act request showed Richmond Alarm told RPS facilities they needed to contact subcontractors to make some of the fixes, and in other instances, Richmond Alarm said parts were on backorder. None of the issues were fixed.
Richmond Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras called what happened a "misstep" and said he felt he had held his staff accountable for what happened. He said he could not discuss how he held his staff accountable because it was a personnel matter.
CBS 6 Problem Solver Tyler Layne also uncovered that a Richmond Fire Lieutenant told RPS's Chief of Staff that Hathaway had "put himself in a position of extreme neglect" after failing to respond to the fire department's requests to come back and reinspect schools to check on fire violations prior to the Fox fire.
Retired Superintendent Dr. Charles Maranzano, who lead school divisions in New Jersey and Virginia during his career, said he was "astonished" when he learned Hathaway had received a raise.
"The gross mismanagement of facilities in Richmond Schools deserves a thorough public review," he said. "An increase in pay of unusual proportions for poor performance raises the issue of corruption across all levels of the administration in my opinion. Why would any governmental organization reward catastrophic performance among its management team? The taxpayers deserve a public explanation to this absurdity."
When asked about the raise, Richmond School Board Chair Dr. Shonda Harris-Muhammed said it was her understanding that "senior leadership reviewed his 'step' compared to other directors in the school division."
Sources told the CBS 6 Problem Solvers that the RPS administration has been doing salary decompression because some new employees were making more than long-time employees.
As part of that process, employees can request a salary review if they know their salary has been decompressed.
Sources also said Hathaway received another job offer that would have paid him more money.
The Chesterfield County Schools Director of Facilities makes $148,692.
The Hanover County Schools Director of Facilities makes $147,684.
The Henrico County Schools Director of Facilities makes $139,306.
This is a developing story, so anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip.
