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Kansas Liberty: 05 January 2009

Superintendents' salaries flourish as a result of increased budgets for 'education'

Administrators, not teachers, reap rewards of increased school spending

The school funding escalation launched by the state Supreme Court in 2005 was fueled by arguments concerning teachers' salaries and the need to remain competitive. The fact that it was school district superintendents agitating for more money went largely overlooked.

The hike in education funding is widely cited as a growing problem as Kansas seeks to weather an unprecedented financial crisis.

The percentage increases awarded to superintendents and teachers are about the same. But in real dollars, Kansas Liberty has discovered that over the last 15 years Kansas teachers have fared much worse than administrators in getting pay raises and other benefits.

According to Kansas State Department of Education data between the 2007-2008 school year, and the 1992-1993 school year the average salary of Kansas teachers increased by $18,450, while Superintendents’ average pay increased by almost $35,000, and Kansas principals’ salaries increased by about $29,357.

During the same time period the consumer price index-urban for Kansas City has increased by 44.8 percent.

Including benefits, the average contracted salary for superintendents in Kansas for 2007-2008 was $98,113, principals received an average of $80,608, and teachers were paid an average of $51,087.

The highest paid superintendent salary for 2007-2008 –including benefits- was paid to Winston Brooks the superintendent of Wichita Public Schools, who received a contracted salary for 2007-2008 of $278,253.

Brooks announced he was leaving his position as Superintendent earlier this year for a Superintendent position in New Mexico.

Superintendent Tom Trigg, of Blue Valley USD 229, followed close behind with his contracted salary of $275,357. Six-figure salaries are not at all uncommon for the state's superintendents. That tier of education costs more than books and libraries, maintenance and transportation combined.

Wendy Johnson, director of marketing and communications for Wichita Public Schools, said Brooks is deserving of receiving the largest superintendent pay in Kansas for several factors including the district’s large size, and its diverse population of students.

“We are the largest school district in Kansas and we are nearly double the size of the next largest school district in our state,” Johnson told Kansas Liberty. “The market is very competitive for people who have the skill set to be successful in an urban school district so it is not out of the ordinary that the superintendent of the largest school district would have the largest salary.”

Johnson said the Wichita Public Schools had experienced increases in student achievement –based on state assessments- during the last 11 years and said a strong superintendent can affect student achievement.

On the other end of the spectrum, the lowest contract salary for a Superintendent for 2007-2008 went to Pawnee Heights Superintendent Raymond Patterson who received $19,000.

Cheryl Semmel, executive director of the Kansas Association of School Administrators, said she thinks responsibility for school administrators had increased greatly in Kansas over the last 15 to 20 years. Some administrators, she said, have had to combine roles and work as both principal and Superintendent.

“Administration salaries have not necessarily increased disproportionately in relation to other things within the last couple of years,” Semmel told Kansas Liberty. “And all the research shows that district-level decision making at the administration level has an impact on what happens in the classroom”

There is much less discrepancy between the highs and lows for teacher salaries with the highest paid teachers for 2007-2008 receiving $61,183 and the lowest paid teachers receiving $33,074.

According to an American Federation of Teachers report, Kansas ranked 37^th in the nation for its average teacher salary in 2006-2007, with the average teacher earning $43,318 - a 4.5 percent increase in pay from the previous school year. The national average for the 2006-2007 school year was $51,009, also reflecting a 4.5 percent increase in pay.

South Dakota ranked last with an average teacher pay of $35,378.

Wade Anderson, the director of negotiation and research for the Kansas National Education Association, said teachers in Kansas had been receiving better pay since the decision was reached in the school funding case, Montoy v. State, in 2005.

“Prior to the Supreme Court order we had some fairly lean years where funding was inappropriately low,” Anderson told Kansas Liberty. “The last three years we have seen mandated increases in funding and the teacher salaries have been improving. But then when you look at purchasing power and the consumer price index and the inflation factor the increase for salaries is almost inconsequential.”

According to a recent University of Kansas study, however, the increased funding has not improved test results of the state's students.

- Holly Smith

Updated January 11, 2009, to clarify percentage comparisons.

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