Troubled school districts are paying big bucks to lure ‘rock star’ superintendents, reports the Christian Science Monitor.
To come to work here in Clayton County, a failing school district in Georgia, former Pittsburgh superintendent John Thompson wants $275,000 in salary, a $2 million consulting budget, a Lincoln Town Car with a driver, and money to pay a personal bodyguard.
Sound a bit hefty for someone likely to pull a power lunch in a junior high cafeteria? Maybe not.
Fewer qualified candidates, rising expectations, and a near-impossible job description are creating a new breed of superintendents: Call them central office rock stars. These candidates say that, for the right price, they’re willing to do an unpopular job that can take a heavy personal and professional toll to whip underperforming districts into shape.
And, if they fail to turn around schools — or get along with the school board — the “star” superintendents can look forward to a contract buyout to get them to leave town.
…and after the buyout, he can use his contacts to go to work for the private sector as a marketing consultant, selling materials and services to the school district that fired him.
Low salaries compared to Long Island.
Here we have over 11 Superintendents earning over $250,000 per year–topping out at over $325,000.
Of all of our administrators (including assistant principal, principals, asst. sup. etc), 52% earn over $110,000.
Our spending per pupil now tops $17,000, with average teacher pay in Nassau topping $75,000–with avg 12 years experience. Most teachers top 100K at top of the chart.
http://www.newsdayinteractive.com/long-island-schools/index.php
The Clayton County situation generally deserves more attention. It’s a fiasco.
“Of course,it’s all a question of supply and demand,”mused Gaunt.
I think the body guard is a bit much, but a driver actually makes sense - or someone made sense of it for me once.
I complained that J. Jerome Harris (anyone remember J. Jerome, rockstar hired by Atlanta in the 90s? Where is he now?) had a driver. A friend pointed out that if you were the new superintendent in town and had a stated goal of visiting every school you had no hope of learning how to find them all yourself - at the very least, someone from downtown would have been dragged away from the desk to drive him.
According to greatschools.com, the Clayton County schools are 73% black. I doubt that any one person will be able to make a significant change to the schools. My guess is that most of the community leaders in Claton County send their children to private schools and that the school system functions more as a jobs program than as an academic institution.
This is a classic example of politicians needing to look lke they are doing something to solve a problem without really facing the problem.
The problems with the Clayton County schools do not originate with the students, but with a corrupt and incompetent school board. The school district needs immediate, strong action in order not to lose accreditation. It is a tragedy for the community.
I’ve written about the dire situation in School Board Screws Up: District to Lose Accreditation and First, Let’s Kill All the School Boards
Thompson’s salary works out to $5.26 per student, or $466 per school, which doesn’t seem excessive to me. And the bodyguard request makes sense, given how corrupt the school board is.
Detroit’s new superintendent is good for $280,000/year plus perks.
So far the district’s gotten a continuation of previous policies and the exciting, solution-du-jour: small schools. A couple of the district war zo…high schools will be broken up into several smaller high schools in the same building.