Former Hamilton County School Area Superintendent Dr. Elaine Swafford received almost $55,000 for unused vacation pay when she recently left the county schools to return to a post at Chattanooga State Community College.
A portion of the amount was for unused vacation hours that former Supt. Dr. Jesse Register had agreed she could transfer from her earlier time at Chattanooga State.
The payment from the county schools was for $54,783.83.
This was for a net of 976.33 vacation hours at an hourly rate of $56.11.
Dr. Swafford’s contract, dated March 2004, and signed by Dr. Swafford and Dr. Register, called for 368.5 hours of annual leave to be transferred from Chattanooga State to the county schools, county school officials said.
During her four-year tenure at the county schools, she accrued an additional 772.83 (24 days per year). At the end of her time, she asked that 150 hours be transferred back to CSTCC.
County school records show she used 15 hours of vacation time.
She transferred 1,534.7 sick hours to the county schools, used 12 days (90 hours), and transferred 1,947.72 hours back to CSTCC (giving her a net balance with HCDE of 0), county school officials said.
Dr. Swafford said, "Some of this information about my vacation pay is misleading without other background information.
"I will be forthcoming with more background information and also with my concerns about how my personal information was obtained."