By JEFF PICKELL 

The old saying goes that time is money, but school superintendent Kyle Griffith has a different take.

Responding to the Morenci school board’s recent approval of contract extensions for administrative staff members, he said, “They’re giving the staff time, and time doesn’t cost money.”

From the perspective of a district struggling to balance its budget, he’s right. The five-year extensions granted to Griffith and fiscal officer Erica Metcalf and the three-year extensions given to the rest of the administrative staff are, in a way, a show of good faith.

Griffith was hesitant to say the extensions came in exchange for the pay freeze administrators also accepted with their new contracts—referring to them rather as a result of the negotiation process. But, as a school district working hard to reduce a substantial budget deficit, administrators have little else to negotiate for.

Administrators are the people chiefly in charge of cutting the deficit; it would be hypocritical for them to bargain for more pay or better fringe or retirement benefits—all of which would add to the shortfall.

Still, staff members should be compensated somehow for the concessions they’ve agreed to, even if the compensation is only symbolic or philosophical, which is what the extensions are.

Administrative contracts still include a clause allowing for layoffs due to districtwide financial difficulty, and Griffith said he continues to consider combining administrative positions, as the board voted to do last year with the elementary school counselor and principal positions.

“We can’t avoid not having a layoff clause,” he said. “This is the reality of the times.”

The Big Three automotive companies’ recent announcements of big losses in 2006 combined with impending facility closings at both Daimler-Chrysler and Pfizer indicate that the region is still in the “It’s going to get worse before it gets better” phase of a hopeful economic rebound—Griffith said he doesn’t see things improving any time soon.

The extensions, then, are all the board has to offer administrators as the district and state continue to weather the icy cold economy.