How Does this shit even happen? School Superintendent's salary of $660,000

[cali]

while teacher in same district has to use her own money to buy paper for her students.

Residents demanded answers at an emergency meeting in Lawndale Tuesday night after a series of reports revealed an excessive amount of compensation for the superintendent of the Centinela Valley Union High School District.

KCAL9’s Dave Bryan reports that Jose Fernandez’s total compensation last year was $663,000, all for running a district of three high schools with only about 6,500 students.

The school district also floated a loan of more than $900,000 for Fernandez at 2 percent interest over 40 years at a time when he had already declared bankruptcy, Bryan reported.

<snip>

Hawthorne High School teacher Caryn Charles said the district is giving lavish loans and huge salaries to the superintendent when she has to pay to buy paper for her students.

“It’s really embarrassing as a teacher that we don’t have any paper at our department at our school. With all due respect to all of you, but it’s embarrassing when I have to go to Office Depot and buy paper, and I read that other people don’t have to worry about things like that,” she said.


http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/02/25/residents-outraged-over-centinela-valley-superintendents-excessive-pay

[Blue_Tires]

1. You'd be surprised at how high the compensation can be

In some systems, there isn't a "hard" number for superintendent salary, so a potential outside candidate who is in demand can negotiate something a little higher...

Prince George's Co. (Maryland) schools were paying their superintendent like $425k annually, and that was 10 years ago...

[DebJ]

3. but PG has 206 schools and 125,000 students.

A Superintendent where I live in Pennsyltuckey makes $125,000 plus generous benefits
for one high school, and four k-8 schools. The high school graduating classes are less
than 400 students. Per student, that's about 10 times more cost.

[seveneyes]

2. Apathy and no regard for how taxes are spent

If more people just made a little bit of noise about such excess, this kind of outrageous spending would not be tolerated. All excessive public salaries should go before a citizen review board.

[jsr]

8. But but we are getting a deal because they can make more in the private sector!

Let them find a job in the private sector.

[A Simple Game]

4. But do you know who we would get to apply for these jobs if we capped the salary at $150,000?

THE VERY SAME PEOPLE! And I still doubt that most would be worth the money.

Paying these outrageous salaries makes no sense at all.

The same is true for company CEOs. Cap the salary at $200,000 and you would still get the same people applying, and most still wouldn't be worth the money.

[jsr]

6. Exactly.

[JDPriestly]

19. Yes. But if you offer the money, who would say no? No one.

People who demand or accept that kind of money from a community to manage the schools don't care about the schools.

[Not Sure]

24. Damn. You nailed it.

[JHB]

5. A side effect of spiralling executive pay in the private sector

As corporate executive compensation has gone up and up, it normalized bloating of pay for administrators of "comparatively sized organizations" across the board: foundations, nonprofits, university admin, and public school system administrators.

All in the name of "attracting the best people", even when the ones who get the jobs clearly are not.

[LibDemAlways]

7. That district serves a community that

is far from wealthy, and the money spent on that outrageous salary and extra perks is money being taken away from students and teachers. That superintendent sounds like a crook. I hope the public keeps the pressure up and that positive change is coming soon.

[Iliyah]

9. My children go the school in Lawndale

good school district but alas that is totally abuse and he will be fired, let go or resign with I hope with detail investigation into how this happened.

[valerief]

10. Thieving bastards. nt

[libodem]

11. Thought it might be the head coach

But that is usually college football and they are the highest paid person in the state.

[progressoid]

12. That would probably be UCLA basketball coach Ben Howland

UCLA basketball coach Ben Howland earned $2,234,191 in gross pay last year, UC Berkeley's Jeff Tedford earned $2,146,581 before being fired in December after a 3 win-9 loss season. The university said their salaries come from non-state funds.

Number two on the list - and the top paid UC faculty member - is UCLA’s world renown liver transplant surgeon Ronald Busuttil. He earned $2,232,151 in gross pay last year. A big part of his salary, comes from his clinical practice, according to UC.

The university's highest profile employee, incoming president Janet Napolitano, won't be anywhere near that. She'll probably come in as the 180th highest paid when she starts in the fall, at a salary of $570,000. The university includes multiple search options in its salary database.

The university made the case in this report that many of its workers are paid significantly below market. Pay was frozen for all UC employees in 2008. It was lifted a couple of years later.

http://www.scpr.org/blogs/education/2013/07/31/14406/three-coaches-on-university-of-california-top-5-pa/

[libodem]

17. Yep

Did you see the graphic that floated around here of each states' highest paid employee? It was a coach in every state, if I'm not mistaken. Sad priorities in this modern world.

[Dustlawyer]

13. Our District was paying almost $450,000

for our Superintendant. He had a new huge stadium built named after himself while starting teachers make $28,000 and have to pay out of pocket for a lot of stuff.

[progressoid]

14. And it's just as bad in small communities as well.

Ironically, many Sups are often tasked with trimming the budget.

[Lobo27]

15. Because a lot of the people running schools are idiots.

Here in Texas small school district built a 60mil football stadium. Now the stadium is closed because it was built like shit.

[AnalystInParadise]

26. I am from Texas

Allen is not a small school district. The median household income of Allen in over 90,000 dollars, the appraised value of Allen's SCHOOL property is 7 BILLION dollars and the district has 19,000 students. That is not a small district. It has 6,000!!!!! students in grades 9-12 making it one of the largest schools in Texas The marching band is the largest in the WORLD!!!!! with over 750 members, Allen is a powerhouse in academics athletics and arts......... I am not defending the stadium, but get your freaking facts right, that is not a small district, that is the Los Angeles of school districts........The stadium is a monstrosity of waste, but that town and that district are not small in any way shape or form.

[Lobo27]

27. Well even if the city is wealthy...

I consider a city with less 90k in population small or medium if you will.

[surrealAmerican]

16. How does it happen?

That's a question to ask the school board. This is their call.

It not only matters who you vote for in those local elections, you have to pay attention to what they do after they're elected.

[Sheldon Cooper]

18. What the hell??

The school district also floated a loan of more than $900,000 for Fernandez at 2 percent interest over 40 years at a time when he had already declared bankruptcy, Bryan reported.

They gave him nearly a million dollars at 2% over 40 years, after he had declared bankruptcy?? If I was a taxpayer in this district I would be stocking up on torches and pitchforks. Unbelieveable.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. It's the "CEO earned it" mindset....

To believe otherwise makes you a Marxist.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

20. Only in America.

[zeemike]

23. Yep only in America.

The country with the best education system is Findland...and they pay their teachers like doctors...and are highly respected by the public...there is a lesson in that.
You want good education, reward the bottom not the top...because that is where it happens.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

25. America also models their educational system to be adversarial....

You have the totally absurd situation of a management vs union WAR going on to the point where the management part forgets they are NOT supposed to be working for "the taxpayers" but for the students to provided them with the best education possible. That means you aren't supposed to be trying to crack down on costs and blaming teachers for the arrogance of expecting a paycheck.

[madfloridian]

22. Looks like part of a special group of schools. California Partnership Academies. Had 3 yrs to prove

http://www.centinela.k12.ca.us/pdf/CVUHSD%20Academies%20Brochure.pdf

The Centinela Valley Union High School District continues to make historic
gains in student achievement. Our commitment to college and career
readiness is evident in our award-winning California Partnership Academy
programs and the internationally recognized International Baccalaureate
(IB) Diploma Program, planned for Hawthorne in 2013-14. The strength of
the district and the community it serves has been recently reinforced with
the passage of a parcel tax in November 2012, providing further support for
the district’s unprecedented growth

Here is a long article about those schools. Is it a regular traditional public high school? I can't tell for sure.

http://edsource.org/today/2012/new-2-year-lease-on-life-for-163-partnership-academies/20476

From 2012

Financially threatened high school career academies will get a lifeline and new career tech programs will get a lift, now that Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation committing $68 million for those and related projects over the next two years.

SB 1070 will sustain the career technology programs in high schools and community colleges that were to lose their funding and authorization at the end of this fiscal year in June. Now they will have additional time, and the Legislature will have two more years, to consider their future. The bill’s author is Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, who has been a CTE champion in the Legislature.

The chief beneficiary will be 163 California Partnership Academies, about a third of the total 503 in the state, that were started three years ago under another bill that Steinberg sponsored. Their funding will continue through June 2015.

Partnership Academies are small three-year schools within comprehensive high schools that offer career and college opportunities: college prep courses, academic counseling, job internships, and career training in areas ranging from engineering and architecture to manufacturing, agriculture, and health science. They must serve primarily minority students who have done poorly in school. Though their track record is good – with significantly higher graduation and college admission rates than similar students statewide – their future was in doubt without secure funding, even though the amount per school in state aid ($59,000, to support a coordinator’s time and collaborative planning among Academy teachers) is not huge. And not all will get money the second year, when funding shrinks from $48 million to $20 million. They’ll have to compete with data showing outcomes, such as attendance and graduation rates and readiness for the next stage at a community college. Most of the grants under SB 1070 will be competitive, administered by the California Department of Education and the Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

“If a Partnership Academy can demonstrate good performance, it will get the money,” said Patrick Ainsworth, director of the Career and College Transition Division of the state Education Department. “This is one of the few performance-based systems.”

Is this a part of the education reform movement? Hard to tell.