Kansans who’ve been bombarded with media reports of schools being underfunded might be surprised to learn that some school administrators received large pay hikes in the 2017 school year. Open Records requests submitted to to 21 districts representing 50 percent of students statewide produced multiple examples of school administrators receiving more than a 5 percent pay hike, several of which received double-digit increases.
The highest paid employee among those districts was Salina Superindent Bill Hall at $334,833. Two of the large increases went to newly-hired superintendents in Topeka and Manhattan, comparing their pay to that of their predecessors; seven other large increases went to individuals serving in a different capacity than the previous year. Paying out unused sick leave as a ‘retirement bonus’ (that also spikes pensions) is another common practice among school districts that may be the cause of some of the very large increases.
The 37 individuals listed below are not necessarily the only employees who received large increases, as only the highest paid staff members were examined, but the complete payroll for each district can be found at KansasOpenGov.org.
Payroll listings for the Pittsburg and Iola school districts will be posted when they respond to the Open Records request sent out mid-July.
