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Chicago Sun Times

Lawmakers want educator benefits exposed

'THESE ARE TAX DOLLARS'
Push for itemized breakdown of school administrators' earnings

February 7, 2009

BY ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter/rrossi@suntimes.com

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle want to blow the lid off "hidden benefits'' in educator salaries following Chicago Sun-Times' disclosures that some superintendent salaries in the state have climbed past $400,000.

Several legislators said they would like to see itemized breakdowns of administrators' salaries. Currently, the state Board of Education only releases an overall annual salary figure.

Last week, the Sun-Times reported that now-retired Supt. Neil Codell was the highest-paid educator in the state, taking home $411,500 last school year, according to state records. He oversaw two schools in Niles Township High School District 219.

On his heels was Laura Murray, another now-retired superintendent, who made $402,300 while presiding over one high school in Homewood-Flossmoor District 233.

Niles board President Robert Silverman said Codell had received a "base salary'' of $182,500. But despite a Freedom of Information Act request, district officials would not itemize his pay, although they did release his contract.

State Sen. Dan Cronin, the senior Republican on the Senate Education Committee, called it "outrageous'' that a district would not itemize a superintendent's pay.

"These are tax dollars. There's an obligation to disclose to the public every dime,'' the Elmhurst lawmaker said.

'Smoke and mirrors'

Cronin said he favors requiring the state board to post an itemized breakdown of every public educator's salary on the agency's Web site. The breakdown could include base salary, bonuses, pension contributions, paid sick and vacation days and annuities.

"It's frustrating to me as a policy maker that we can't easily access reliable data about the biggest single cost in education,'' Cronin said.

Senate Education Committee Chairman James Meeks (D-Chicago) said he also favors "complete sunshine on ... hidden benefits.''

"You shouldn't have a lot of smoke and mirrors,'' he said.

"When you see ... superintendents are making $400,000 and we're making arguments for more school funding, that's why the general public thinks that money is going to be eaten up by bureaucracy,'' said Meeks, who has protested the state's education funding system.

Even state Rep. Jerry Mitchell, a former school superintendent, favored more transparency.
"I'd feel a lot better seeing it itemized,'' said Mitchell (R-Rock Falls), a member of the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee.

"Holy cow,'' Mitchell said. "How much more is [Codell] making than the governor? Is his job more important than being responsible for the whole budget of Illinois?'' The governor's base salary is $177,412.

'Less competitive?'

Brent Clark, executive director of the Illinois Association of School Administrators, declined to say if he favored itemized disclosure of administrator salaries until he saw proposed legislation on the issue.

Clark noted that superintendent salaries in Illinois, the fifth-largest state, are among the country's highest, and "we want to make sure that anything we do is not going to . . . make Illinois less competitive for some of the top talent.''

The highest educator salaries -- including Codell's and Murray's -- were likely inflated by pension-enhancing 20 percent pay bumps that were written into many superintendent contracts before a 2005 law cracking down on the practice, Clark said. Those should disappear soon, as contracts written before the law was enacted expire, he said.

Contributing: Art Golab, Dave McKinney

http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/1418803,CST-NWS-supt08.article.

Thanks to MJS for sending this our way!