Township High School District 214 employee salaries
Township High School District 214 employee salaries are public record under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.
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Salaries
In 2010 District 214 Superintendent Dave Schuler signed a 5-year contract with a base salary of $198,408. Every following year of the contract Schuler will be given a raise of either 2 percent or the percentage change of the Consumer Price Index, whichever is greater. [1] He also receives a $600 per month car allowance.
According to www.teachersalaryinfo.com the district spent $116,855,000 on teacher's salaries in 2011. The average salary, according to the site, is $54,924. [2]
According to teachersalaryinfo, salary expenses are broken down as: [3]
- Teacher salary expenses on regular education: $45,952,000
- Teacher salary expenses on special education: $9,527,000
- Teacher salary expenses on vocational education: $5,440,000
Benefits
According to www.teachersalaryinfo.com the district spent $34,210,000 on teacher benefits in 2011. [4]
The Board of Education will pay 9.4 percent of the Teacher Retirement System member contribution and the insurance contribution for all certified administrative compensation that is recognized by the Teacher Retirement System as creditable earnings. [5]
The Board of Education will provide an allowance of $7,452 for the 2010-11 fiscal year for each administrator to be used toward the purchase of employee medical/dental coverage and dependent medical/dental coverage as detailed in the Township High School District 214 Insurance Booklet. Any unused portion of this $7,452 fringe benefit allowance shall be paid to the administrator as salary during 2010-11 prorated over each regular pay period. The allowance will be reviewed in the 2010-11 school year to determine the amount of allowance to be provided in 2011-12. ref> District 214, 2010-11 Administrative Compensation and Benefit Package, Sept. 2010 </ref>
The 2010-11 health insurance premium for medical, dental and prescriptions is: $7,968 for PPO single coverage and $18,012 for PPO family coverage; HMO premium is $6,180 for single coverage and $17,028 for family coverage. ref> District 214, 2010-11 Administrative Compensation and Benefit Package, Sept. 2010 </ref>
Salary records project
In 2011, Sunshine Review chose 152 local governments as the focus of research on public employee salaries. The editors of Sunshine Review selected eight states with relevant political contexts (listed alphabetically):
1. California
2. Florida
3. Illinois
4. Michigan
5. New Jersey
6. Pennsylvania
7. Texas
8. Wisconsin
Within these states, the editors of Sunshine Review focused on the most populous cities, counties, and school districts, as well as the emergency services entities within these governments. The purpose of this selection was to develop articles on governments affecting the most citizens.
The salary information garnered from these states were a combination of existing online resources and state Freedom of Information Act requests sent out to the governments.
Importance of public employee pay disclosure
In July 2010, the LA Times uncovered that officials in Bell, California were making remarkably high salaries.[6] The Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo was earning a yearly $787,637. It was later uncovered that Rizzo's total compensation after taking benefits into account topped $1.5 million dollars a year.[7]
For comparison:[6]
- Manhattan Beach with about 7,000 fewer people than Bell paid its most recent city manager $257,484 a year.
- Long Beach, with a population close to 500,000, pays its city manager $235,000 annually.
- Los Angeles County pays its Chief Executive William T Fujioka $338,458.
Corruption solution
After the Los Angeles Times report, governments began to proactively disclose salary information of its employees. Before the end of the Summer of 2010, more than a dozen cities in Orange County, for example, posted salary information on the front pages of their websites.[8]
The cost of transparency websites maintaining such information ranges from the tens of thousands to the hundreds of thousands. These websites also save money, and this often is not taken into account when measuring costs.
Citizens upset about the breach of trust and armed with information formed a group called the Bell Association to Stop the Abuse, which pushed for an independent audit of city salaries and contracts.[9]
Citizens, empowered with information, are key to keeping government free from corruption and efficient. A study published by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia revealed that the city of Philadelphia has a problem with the efficiency and costs of public employee pensions. [10]. The amount that Philadelphia pays to pension recipients limits the city’s ability to use its budget effectively. The report revealed that there were more individuals receiving pension benefits—33,907 claimants in 2006—than workers in the city—28,701. [10] The authors of the study recommend three steps towards addressing the problem of high costs in pensions. [10] First, improve data collection so that decision-making in terms of pension policies is more informed. Second, promote transparency for better accountability to citizens. Third, reduce costs and use the savings for developing Philadelphia.
Resistance to public employee salary data as public records
The idea of making public employee salaries is relatively new. In 2008, several local government employee associations and unions protested the posting of state employee salaries by the newspaper The Sacramento Bee.[11] [12] At the time, it was seen as a safety risk and invasion of privacy.
Sunshine Review aims in posting salary information
Often times, publicly posted salaries leave out important information. Salary schedules can be published are ranges, not as specific take-home compensation.[8] [7]And high-level, highly-paid positions are often not disclosed proactively.[8] Additionally, salaries leave out compensation received through health and retirement benefits, as well as benefits such as commuter allowances and cell phone reimbursements. This project aims to close the gap and provide a more accurate picture of public employee salaries for the sake of public education and transparency.
See also
External links
References
- ↑ Daily Herald, Dist. 214 gives Schuler new 5-year contract, Feb. 20, 2010
- ↑ TeacherSalaryInfo, Average Teacher Salary in Township High School District 214
- ↑ TeacherSalaryInfo, Average Teacher Salary in Township High School District 214
- ↑ TeacherSalaryInfo, Average Teacher Salary in Township High School District 214
- ↑ District 214, 2010-11 Administrative Compensation and Benefit Package, Sept. 2010
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Bell city manager might be highest paid in nation: $787,637 a year," LA Times, July 14, 2010
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Benefits push Bell ex-manager's compensation to more than $1.5 million," LA Times, August 8, 2010
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "O.C. cities dash to post personnel salaries", Orange County Register, August 10, 2010
- ↑ "California Official's $800,000 Salary in City of 38,000 Triggers Protests", Bloomberg, July 20, 2010
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 '’Philadelphia’s Quiet Crisis: The Rising Cost of Employee Benefits, Pew Charitable Trusts and the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, January 23, 2008
- ↑ "California State Workers Protest Salary Database Publication," GovTech, March 17, 2008
- ↑ State Worker Salary Search, Sacramento Bee
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