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Schools Chief Cathie Black Paid $3.3 Million to Retire from IBM, Report Says

By Della Hasselle | March 12, 2011 12:11pm | Updated on March 13, 2011 10:24am
Schools Chancellor Cathie Black at a meeting with downtown parents in January.
Schools Chancellor Cathie Black at a meeting with downtown parents in January.
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DNAinfo/Julie Shapiro

By Della Hasselle

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — It looks like the city's proposed school cuts won't be affecting Cathie Black's pocketbook.

The former Hearst Magazines executive received $3.3 million from supercompany IBM after retiring her position on the board of directors to work as the New York City Public Schools Chancellor, the New York Post reported.

An annual report shows that Black received the payout from earned compensation and dividends, the Post reported.

The buyout comes on top of her salary of $300,000 she had earned working part-time for the company since 1995. It's also in addition to $197,000 she received last year from Coca-Cola, where she also worked on the board, according to the Post.

Added up, the IBM buyout is 12 times the amount of her current salary as city schools chancellor, which earns her $250,000 a year.

This information comes on the heels of the news that state funding cuts could leave public schools reeling and teachers without jobs.

The city's current plan to shed more than 4,600 teachers and cut another 1,500 positions through attrition over time could leave some Manhattan schools without a majority of their teaching staff, DNAinfo reported.

As part of the solution, Black initially proposed a measure that some say punishes thrifty prinicipals, leaving parents livid all over Manhattan.

The plan, protested on the steps of City Hall Thursday, suggests that schools give back a portion of their unspent funds to help ease the blow from Albany's cuts.

Black initially proposed that schools give back 50 percent of their unspent funds. But after hearing from concerned principals, Black announced Monday that schools would only lose 30 percent of their saved money.

The news also comes days after Comptroller John Liu rejected DOE's $20 million teacher recruitment plan, citing impending layoffs as the reason.