$70,000 school janitor probed

Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS — A school janitor earned more than $70,000 last year — more than any principal in the school system. And his son happens to be the schools chief.

The Orleans Parish School Board said it will ask an independent investigator to examine the pay of Alphonse Davis, 70, who made $38,754 in overtime last year. His base salary was $27,738.

At time-and-a-half, Davis would have worked about 1,850 hours over and above his regular 7 3/4-hour days. That would amount to an average of about 35 hours of overtime each week. With vacation, holiday and other pay added in, he made $70,691.

Alphonse Davis, the schools chief who shares the same name as his father, said Monday that he did nothing wrong and was not aware of his father’s earnings, which grew substantially after the younger Davis took over the school system in 1999.

"I’m a believer in my father’s integrity," Davis said. "It’s entirely probable that he worked all these hours. He’s a hard worker."

Davis said he will have chief operating officer Roger Reese review his father’s pay.

The janitor has been with the school system for 40 years, and is now the head custodian at George Washington Carver High School.

At a meeting Monday, school board members agreed to find an independent investigator to examine the records of Davis’ father.

"We don’t have enough information yet, and we need to know that the information that we have is credible," board vice president Cheryl Mills said.

"I don’t know if anything was done wrong, but it certainly has the appearance of more than a coincidence," school board member Jimmy Fahrenholtz said.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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