Pastorek Hires 3 New Top Officials (Truly Unbelievable!)
by WILL SENTELL - Advocate (excerpt)

The state Department of Education will pay two new officials $160,000 per year each and a third $99,000 annually as part of a reorganization of the agency, state Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek said Thursday. Officials of the same department announced June 11 that 31 employees would be laid off because of state budget problems.

The new hires are: Guillermo Ferreyra, former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at LSU. He will be paid $160,000 per year. Gayle Sloan, former superintendent of the St. Tammany Parish School District. Sloan will be paid $160,000 per year. Erin Bendily, who is education policy adviser for Gov. Bobby Jindal. Bendily will be paid $99,000 annually. Pastorek disclosed the salaries after spelling out his reorganization plans to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. “This is a sea change,” Pastorek told the board of the department reshuffling. “We are going to be the envy of the country.”

Last month’s layoffs trimmed agency ranks to 691 employees, down from 739 at the same time last year. Salaries of those let go in June ranged from $22,484 to $90,313 per year, officials said last month. Pastorek said he concluded earlier that none of the 31 workers who were let go could handle jobs in the reorganized department. He said the new hires are filling positions that have been vacant. “We didn’t have the talent in-house to meet the mission we have,” Pastorek said.