New report finds most school districts give raises to superintendents

CapitolBeatOK Staff Report

An examination of the salary list for Oklahoma school district superintendents shows that over 300 districts gave raises to their superintendents of a thousand dollars or more this school year.  The data from the State Department of Education was compiled by Oklahomans for Responsible Government (OFRG).
 
“Common Education is getting its budget cut like all other agencies this year, but a majority of superintendents got pay raises – some as much as a teacher’s salary,” said Brian Downs, OFRG Executive Director.  “This is money that is not getting into the classroom.”
 
The report finds that over $51-million dollars was spent on superintendents’ salaries this year, a million dollar increase over last year.  The number of superintendents making $100,000 or more is up from 175 last year to more than 200 this year and 58 superintendents make more than State Superintendent Sandy Garrett whose salary is set by statute at around $124,000.
 
“Someday we’d like to be able to do a report like this on all administrative costs, but with so few districts putting their budget details on their websites, compiling that data is difficult,” said Downs.  “This is the kind of information taxpayers deserve to have at their fingertips so they can give feedback to their elected officials on the school board.”
 
NOTE: A sortable spreadsheet can be found on  OFRG’s website. http://ofrg.org/spcial-reports.