Listings for school payrolls equaling $2.3 billion across 33 districts are available on KansasOpenGov.org, including 1,269 employees who made more than $100,000. Similar information is available for six community colleges in the state as well.
The gross pay in the school payrolls represents an employee’s salary, overtime, and other pay, but not benefits.
Numerous school districts had high increases in total pay this year despite having fewer employees. Gardner-Edgerton had a 12% increase, but 2% fewer employees. Similarly, Topeka’s gross pay went up 10% with an increase in the number of total employees of less than 1%.
The Kansas City, Kansas School District takes the cake though among all the school payrolls, with an $18.6 million increase in total gross pay despite having 3% fewer employees. executive director Kristen Scott got an $11,842 (7.4%) raise, earning $170,366 in 2023. Another executive director, Leona Miller, received a $12,104 (7.4%) raise to earn $164,392. In a large district with dozens of directors, principals, and other high-earning administrative positions, the costs start to add up – especially when other positions such as custodians and electricians have higher salaries compared to other districts. See the below table for more.
Some community colleges across the state also had high pay raises. Butler Community College, Cowley County Community College, and Hutchinson Community College all had total gross pay go up by 7%, and Johnson County Community College, Kansas City, Kansas Community College, and WSU Tech all had total gross pay go up 8%.
The adjacent table documents the highest twenty earners for the community colleges in Kansas; the full payrolls are available on KansasOpenGov.org. Johnson County Community College President Andrew Bowne was the top earner last year, and this year he remains in that position with a $25,045 (6.8%) raise. Similarly, Kansas City Kansas Community College President Greg Mosier received a $42,070 (17.6%) raise into this year.
Some members of the Top 20 leaped into the count from high raises. Pamela Vassar’s salary doubled as the Dean of Students at Johnson County Community College. Same with Professor Michael Flanagan at the Kansas City Kansas Community College. With that said, some of the compensation could include cash-outs of unused vacation and sick days at retirement.
The information for payroll was collected from Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) requests made to community colleges and school districts. Some districts quickly fulfilled the requests, as they have for over a decade. It is hard to imagine that a large school district doesn’t have an electronic listing of employees and their positions, but USD 385 Andover says it no longer has a system to provide positions; we found some job titles on their website. Wichita State Tech provided positions, but in an unreadable code and hasn’t provided an updated version. USD 250 Pittsburg still hasn’t provided the information requested in July.
Full information about school district payroll as well as city, county, and state payroll can be found on KansasOpenGov.org. If there is a school district or community college you’re interested in seeing information for, please reach out to us: we have new districts every year.
