Arrangements that school boards make to hire and pay superintendents sometimes take strange turns. According to Th e Record-Review in Bedford, N.Y., a recently favored superintendent candidate of the Katonah-Lewisboro (N.Y.) School District turned down the position because of "negativity" expressed by the community. The candidate, who was superintendent in a New Jersey district, had read accounts of "personal attacks against individuals" in Katonah-Lewisboro, and thus, didn't take the job and stayed in his old job, the newspaper reported.
In Atlanta, published reports reveal that the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education gave Superintendent Beverly L. Hall a $66,000 bonus this year on top of her salary of $260,000 for meeting the school system's annual performance goals. The board agreed to provide annual bonuses when Hall was hired in 1999, and she has collected nearly $329,000 above her annual pay since then, reports say.
But a similar arrangement did not work when the Arlington (Mass.) Public Schools hired Nate Levenson as superintendent in 2005. He had his contract written to pay him more if he met certain district goals and pay him less if he did not. "I thought that would be a strong and positive statement about my commitment to accountability," Levenson says, and the school committee that hired him took comfort in it.
However, it turned out to be "a bad idea," Levenson says, and he had it removed from his contract. "It was one of those culture clashes," he explains. "It would have sent a good message in a private sector setting, but it did not send the intended message in a public school setting. During tight budget times, when you are unable to keep all the staff that you want and pay teachers as much as you want, a performance raise for a superintendent is going to be very challenging politically. It became a lightning rod of controversy rather than a motivator." Levenson says his salary is roughly $150,000, above the mean of average salaries.
INSTRUCTIONAL AND CURRICULUM DIRECTORS
The role of a curriculum resource teacher or administrator has become more sophisticated and time demanding, says Tim Laughlin, math and science curriculum resource teacher in Whisconier Middle School in the Brookfield (Conn.) Public Schools. "We align the curriculum to state frameworks and district goals, we help teachers with their instructional strategies, and we oversee that they are following the curriculum," he explains.
According to the survey, managers of curriculum or instructional services earned a mean of average salary of $95,025 in 2006-2007. With 27 years of classroom teaching experience himself, Laughlin says his base salary is $82,000.
Much of Laughlin's work involves devising effective solutions to improve student learning outcomes. Laugh-lin says he is aware of pressure to help his school meet NCLB goals. "That's part of my job, absolutely. NCLB impacts every school, because if you fall behind its guidelines, then you become a failing school," he declares.
To ensure that doesn't happen, Laughlin says, "we made some changes in our curriculum; we raised the bar a little bit." He explains that Whisconier started a math lab last year to help students in grades 5 through 8 who were lagging in their classroom work to gain the algebra skills they need. In the morning, the lab teacher works with students who have scored below goal on the state mastery test in math. In the afternoon, math teachers send students to the lab who need extra help on classroom topics.
Laughlin says his responsibilities were to "design, run and troubleshoot" a facility that could serve as many students as possible. Last year, it served 668 of the school's 1,000 students, and subsequent improvements on test scores showed that "we had a very successful year," Laughlin reports.
FINANCE/BUSINESS OFFICERS
It used to be that school district finance/business officers worked quietly in smokefilled back rooms, "counting beans and crunching numbers," says John D. Musso, executive director of the Association of School Business Officials International. They also were known as the "no" people who frequently told other district officials, "You can't do this, we don't have enough money," he adds.
