With one specialist for every 900 computers — instead of the state-recommended 300 computers — technology professionals had to log the most overtime hours of Carroll County school employees last year.

Kenneth Crilly, the information technology specialist who worked the most overtime hours at 581, earned $23,790 in overtime pay during fiscal year 2006, according to financial records obtained by The Examiner.

The overtime pay, plus a base salary of $55,518, netted him $79,309.

“Our tech service people usually receive the most overtime,” said Stephen Guthrie, assistant superintendent of administration.

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Despite the Maryland Department of Education’s suggestion that school systems employ one technology specialist for every 300 computers in order to be most cost-effective, Carroll devotes more of its budget to the system’s 2,300 teachers rather than supplement the 10 full-time technology specialists.

The Examiner is taking a look at salaries and overtime payments to public employees throughout the region. (Click here to view the entire file for Carroll County Public Schools.)

While Carroll didn’t go over its budget for technology specialists’ overtime last year, it did raise enough concern that Chief Information Officer Gary Davis researched the problem and concluded that starting next year, tech workers will earn higher salaries, undergo performance evaluations for bonuses, but no longer will receive compensation for overtime.

“We’ll be better able to predict the hours, because we have a long history of technicians working more than 40 hours a week,” Guthrie said. “We believe we will spend less money next year because we smoothed out [the problem].”

Top five technology services overtime

Base/Overtime/Total

1. Kenneth Crilly: $55,518/$23,790/$79,309

2. James Darby: $62,329/$18,999/$81,328

3. Brenda Walker: $51,227/$16,579/$67,806

4. Jeffrey Beard: $61,534/$14,975/$76,510

5. Sharon Dickerson: $34,275/$10,457/$44,733

Source: Carroll County schools

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com