School chiefs average $190,000 in pay
Some local superintendents took pay cut in past 2 years as economy faltered
BY TANYA SIERRA
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2010 AT 9:59 P.M.
September 1, 2010, Poway, CA, USA_At Abraxas High School Poway Unified School District Superintendent John Collins meets with students Adriana Cedillo, left, and Elise Buster, at right, as they work in their "Mission to Graduate" class. Photo Credit: CHARLIE NEUMAN/San Diego Union-Tribune/ZUMA Press
Click on pdf link (below) to see the countywide data sampled in the image above.
DOCUMENT
Randy Ward, top-paid superintendent
By comparison
- Top transportation officials: Receive $238,700 base salary on average to manage budgets that average $318 million
- City managers: $204,000 on average to manage $276 million average budget
- Superintendents: $189,800 on average to manage $162.3 million average budget
Source: The Watchdog’s survey of local agencies
More than a dozen of the county’s 48 superintendents and community college presidents have decreased their pay over the past two years in response to the flailing economy, but their average salary still hovers around $190,000 per year.
Poway Superintendent John Collins, named to his position in July, took a 4.3 percent cut to his base salary immediately after beginning that job. He agreed to reduce his $235,000 annual salary by $10,000.
“We got to the point where we realized we would not be able to balance our budget without concessions from our employees,” Collins said.
The Watchdog collected superintendent salary information as part of its ongoing examination of public compensation practices. The findings include:
• Randy Ward, superintendent of the San Diego County Office of Education, makes more than $286,000 in base pay. That tops the county’s chief administrative officer, Walt Ekard, and the city of San Diego’s chief operating officer, Jay Goldstone. With fringe benefits, Ward’s total compensation is $358,000.
• The average total compensation — which includes benefits such as auto allowances and retirement contributions — is more than $227,300.
• Salaries range from $108,000 to $286,000 per year, with 19 superintendents or college presidents making $200,000 or more per year in base salary.
• On a per-student basis, superintendent pay varies widely — from $1.86 per student for San Diego Unified’s Bill Kowba to $562.50 per student for Janet Wilson at the tiny Dehasa school district in El Cajon.
The survey covered 44 out of the county’s 48 school and community college districts. Three superintendents were excluded because they work part-time at small districts. One failed to respond — Ron Koenig of the Warner Unified School District in Warner Springs.
On average, they manage budgets of $162.3 million, overseeing 1,640 employees and educating 16,700 students. The superintendents already command six-figure salaries, so a small-percentage increase or decrease in their salaries means thousands of dollars.
Ward, for example, makes 8 percent more than he did when he started in the job four years ago. That has meant an increase of more than $20,000 over his starting pay of $265,000.
He has not taken a pay cut, but he waived a bonus he was eligible to receive. Ward was out of town this week due to a family emergency and not available to comment.
Not far behind Ward is Chancellor Constance Carroll, who oversees the San Diego Community College District’s three campuses and six continuing education centers. Her base salary is $267,976, and her total compensation package after benefits comes to more than $304,000.
Pay reductions have not been necessary, Carroll said, because early on in the economic downturn, she instituted pay freezes.
“We have been bringing down our payroll steadily (since 2007-08). We cut $30 million without debt, without borrowing and without laying off,” she said. “There shouldn’t be a mystery when it comes to how the public money is being spent.”
When Carroll first arrived, she tied the chancellor position’s salary increases to the employee unions and eliminated the position’s bonuses. Now, her pay goes up when all employees get an increase.
Carroll’s pay has grown from $207,300 when she took over six years ago, a 29 percent increase.
Others on that curve include Cajon Valley Union’s Janice Cook, whose pay has grown 40 percent over eight years to its current $203,304, and Carlsbad Unified’s John Roach, whose pay has grown 29 percent over six years to its current $229,952.
When Chula Vista Elementary School District Superintendent Lowell Billings took over as leader eight years ago, his salary was $174,789. Today he earns $247,733 — a 42 percent increase. After fringe benefits, he makes $278,543 to oversee a district with more than 27,000 students and 2,600 employees.
“I know I’m well paid,” he said. “I’ve been in a cabinet-level position for 19 years. ... When the board set up my contract, they wanted to keep me because of my skill set.”
Those skills include experience on the instructional side, in human resources and on the business-financial side, Billings said. He will retire in December.
San Diego schools chief Bill Kowba is among those who have taken a pay cut. His base salary is $250,000, but he took a $5,000-a-year pay cut when he began his permanent post as district superintendent in July.
“I think that everyone around us have had to come to grips with the reality of a poor economic setting,” Kowba said. “It would have been the absolutely wrong thing to do to sit here and negotiate with the board for a bigger and larger compensation package than anyone else.”
Altogether, Kowba’s compensation is $291,905. He oversees 132,000 students, 21,000 employees and a $1.9 billion budget. To carry out his responsibilities, Kowba, like some other executives, keeps long work days.
“I sit at my desk at 5:30 each morning, and I don’t leave until 7 at night,” Kowba said. “And I work every Saturday.”
Fringe benefits add tends of thousands of dollars per year to overall compensation. All superintendents receive some level of extra pay, such as car allowances or cell phones.
Extras come down to how well one can negotiate, said David DeBoskey, an assistant professor in the Charles W. Lamden School of Accountancy at San Diego State University.
For example, the only superintendent in the county who receives a housing allowance is Raj Chopra of Southwestern College. Besides his $204,000 base salary, he receives $28,000 per year for housing.
Chopra also receives $12,000 per year as an auto allowance, tied for the highest in the county with Vista Unified Superintendent Joyce Bales. The average auto allowance is $6,800.
In their survey responses, two districts — Chula Vista Elementary and Valley Center-Pauma Unfied — indicated they provide their superintendents with vehicles. For Billings, Chula Vista specified, the vehicle is a 1998 model year.
At Julian Union School District, Superintendent C. Kevin Ogden has no car allowance or district vehicle. He’s entitled to 25 cents a mile in reimbursement, but noted, “I never submit for mileage.”
Ogden is the longest-serving superintendent in the survey, at 15 years. His pay has grown from $66,500 in 1995 to the current $165,000, a 148 percent increase or about 6 percent per year on average.
Several superintendents are due raises, according to their survey responses. The largest is an $11,441 raise next year to the $228,837 salary of Oceanside Unified’s Larry Perondi. Superintendent Stephen Halfaker at Lakeside Union School District and Palomar College President Robert Deegan also are each due a $9,000 raise within a year.
Poway’s Collins said running a school district is like running a large corporation. “What I like to get people to relate to is imagine a business with 38 branches where 33,000 people show up to work every day,” Collins said. “Our kids come to work and come to learn.”
tanya.sierra@uniontrib.com (619) 293-1705 Data specialist Danielle Cervantes contributed to this report.
