Wonder where your school tax dollars go? (Pittsburgh: rental car, rental)

[Hopes]

Am I the only one shocked to learn that the superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools makes over $300,000 per year?

Pittsburgh schools settle suit with official, who will retire | AP | 06/29/2007 (broken link)

What's more shocking is that Pittsburgh pays that money to superintendents who have sex in their cars with prostitutes!

In 1999, he was charged with open lewdness after police said they caught him in a sex act with a homeless woman in a vehicle. He pleaded guilty to a lesser count, disorderly conduct.

[Gerbil]

I'd be curious to see what superintendants in other cities make. Perhaps 300k is average. I'm always disgusted by such high salaries, but if most school districts (or businesses, or colleges...) pay that much it becomes kind of neccesary.

[zip95]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Am I the only one shocked to learn that the superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools makes over $300,000 per year?

where did it say that

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by zip95

where did it say that

Near the bottom of the article it said that the 390,000. settlement amount was 75,000. less than his expected wages, compensation and sick/vacation days for next year.

What gets me is that any normal minded person could think he'd have a chance to get ahead after being charged and convicted for something like that. If that doesn't show the man no sense, I don't what does.

[Hopes]

Here are more in depth articles about the subject:

This one was written before the settlement: Interim city school superintendent threatens suit over hiring process

This one was written after the settlement: City school official retires, gets buyout in court settlement

The above articles are very detailed and offer a lot more information.

[zip95]

Wow! I am shocked. While that amount of money can be comonplace in private industry....I would would have thought it would be almost unheard of in the public sector.

Politics usually acts like an anchor on salaries in government associated positions.....After all, now the Luke has to explain to all the working class Pittsburghers why school taxes are so high, the schools suck, yet the boss of schools still makes 10x more than they do.

[Hopes]

What blows my mind is that it appears that school superintendents earn overtime pay.

The settlement is only $75,000 more than they would have paid him next year, but it also states that his base salary was $125,000. The settlement was $390,000, subtract 75k and 125k from that and $190,000 remains. It says he would have received pay for any unused vacation and sick time. Let's aim high and assume he gets 5 weeks vacation and sick time. We'll give him $480 per day which comes to $12,000, but added to the base makes it only $137,000 so where does the remaining $178,000 come from? The usual benefits wouldn't add up to that.

So, I did an internet search to find out exactly what school superintendents get paid in excess of their base salaries. What I discovered is that in addition to the usual pension and health benefits, many get paid overtime and receive excessive benefits that are not made public knowledge like stipends, monthly automobile rental car and auto expenses, merit payments, unreimbursed medical expenses (that means all of their families medical expenses are paid 100%), longevity pay, reimbursed for unused leaves of absence (up to 80 to 120 days per year reimbursed which is way over the 25 days I estimated for 5 weeks vacation and sick time!), etc.

One study compared the actual earnings to the W2s and 1099s issued by the school districts, and very little of this extra money is reported the government---for even things that are considered salary like a company car and car expenses---so that means that these superintendents don't pay taxes on all of their income. The districts often do not report the district contributions towards pension benefits which is also something employees should pay taxes. Then these superintendents file their taxes with deductions for expenses that they were actually already received reimbursement from the districts.

Here's a very interesting 165 page report prepared by the New Jersey Commission of Investigation on this very issue of what school superintendents really get paid: http://www.state.nj.us/sci/pdf/SCIHigherEdReport.pdf

[kpoeppel]

Here's a relevant article: Compared to 'burbs, city schools are wanton spenders - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

[Hopes]

The Pittsburgh Public School District is $15,462 per pupil!

That's outragous!

And it's absolute proof that more money isn't the solution to education problems!

Other districts achieve better results while spending less money!

Thanks for the article, kpoeppel!

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Hopes

The Pittsburgh Public School District is $15,462 per pupil!

That's outragous!

It's long past time to re-think allowing school districts to operate as zoned monopolies.