May 17, 2009, 2:29PM
Now in control of their own budgets, many New Orleans charter school boards have invested heavily in school leaders, with a few paying well into the six-figure range, doubling or tripling the salaries that principals earned under the old regime.
Atop the pay range sits veteran Kathy Riedlinger, head of Lusher Charter School, who earns $203,556, including a $5,000 yearly car allowance. Lafayette Charter School's Mickey Landry, recruited from a prep school in a national search, is No.2 at $186,000...
State data show most New Orleans charter principals now earn between $80,000 and $110,000 annually, in line with national averages. Principals at RSD-operated schools make between $83,173 and $101,803. The Orleans Parish School Board pays base salaries between $82,330 and $92,054. Both agencies also pay stipends for additional work.
That's a big jump. Before Hurricane Katrina, which led to widespread chartering, base salaries for principals ranged from about $55,000 to about $70,000.
...Jim Huger, chairman of Lafayette's charter board, said the new dynamic resembles that of an elite private school. By way of comparison, the headmaster of Isidore Newman School made $284,828 in 2007, while the headmaster at Metairie Park Country Day School earned $217,500, according to tax forms.
"The board of directors hires the head of school and monitors his progress. If he doesn't get it done, they fire him," Huger said. "But if you're a proven commodity...you can demand whatever (salary) you want and get it -- as it should be," he said. "For the first time in New Orleans, (public) education can be a very rewarding career."
...But some of the highest salaries raised eyebrows.
Riedlinger's $203,556 compensation package, for instance, approaches that of Recovery District Superintendent Paul Vallas and exceeds the $160,000 earned by Orleans Parish School Board Superintendent Darryl Kilbert.
The pay increases have gone mostly unnoticed, in large part because of the difficulty in tracking spending under the system's diffuse governance structure.
As a result, key school leaders, including...Louella Givens, New Orleans' only representative on the state board of education, were all surprised to learn of the top salaries.
Givens said she recently asked a colleague on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education about principal salary information, but was rebuffed.
"I was essentially told that, because charters are independent, they have freedom to set salaries however they want," she said. "When I find out that some of these places are operating like little kingdoms, I think this kind of information should be readily available to the public. You assume there's oversight, but apparently there isn't."
...At schools like Lafayette, which essentially started from scratch under the 2005 state takeover, the charter board formed first, then hired its staff. Riedlinger, by contrast, had been at Lusher long before the school chartered. She thus had a say in naming the board of directors who would oversee her and set her salary.
...Perry, of the UNO charter network, also earns only a step above his principals. It's no accident, he said, that some of the highest salaries are being paid by schools such as Lusher and Franklin, where more affluent parents demand more and can more effectively raise money.
The schools' market doesn't naturally work in the favor of the neediest students, Perry said, adding that regulators should consider incentives to address the inequity. That's the case with both Altman and Landry, both of whom run schools for high-poverty student populations.
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/local_school_principals_pay_re.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
