SARC Statistics Show Superintendent is Paid Twice the Average

St Helena Unified School District SARC Financial Information For 2006/07 SARC

Range St Helena USD Similar Sized District
Beginning Teacher Salary $46,061 $34,363
Mid-Range Salary $65,600 $50,814
Highest Teacher Salary $85,027 $65,731
Average Principal Salary $111,325 $81,316
Superintendent Salary $204,100 $103,105 (2:1 ratio)
% of budget for Teacher Salaries 38.20% 35.80%
% of budget for Administrative Salaries 6.90% 6.50%

If you want to see something impressive take a gander at these figures.
Super's salary is 2:1 of similar sized districts. If I read this correctly,
29.13% of our dollars are being spent on items unrelated to the students
(cell D22). These numbers are for the 2005/2006 school year since the
data runs two years behind, for a reason I don't know but this comes right
out of the SARCs. It is also important to note that we spend 54.4% more on
our students that the state average too (cell D23).

I would personally like to hear an explanation why the District and
Board feel it is necessary to pay 2 times the average salary and why the
teachers' averages are lower than the administrations? I'd rather see
the money go back into the classroom and to the teachers rather than
pay, what appears to be, excessive salaries to administrators. Is this
why the district can't pay for their own IB textbooks, art educational
supplies, drama programs. teacher incentives/rewards, PE equipment and
first aid kits, audio visual equipment, 8th promotion event, safe school
ambassador program, Being there trips/events, library books, Rachael's
Challenge, RLS t-shirts, field trip transportation, Student
Handbooks/planners, etc? All of these items have been paid from the RLS
PTG funds in the past (money raised from the community). All of these
items have also been recommended to be included in the budget this year
by our school's administration. I think we need to know why the
district can't pay for some of the necessities particular as they
pertain to items that are required of the students, i.e. text books, PE
equipment/first aid kits, Student Handbooks/planners, etc. The RLS PTG
board asked for some type of explanation last fiscal year and we receive
one sheet of paper from what appears to be a page from the district's
budget and a comment from our principal that the district only had $16k
left over (after salaries, property taxes, utilities, etc.) to pay for
all of these items.