More pay urged for top job

Although the base salary for the Clark County School District superintendent now rivals or exceeds what's offered by other large urban districts, School Board members shopping for a new top executive are being urged to raise the pay.

Among superintendents for the nation's five largest districts, outgoing Superintendent Walt Rulffes would have had the highest pay if he had not voluntarily reduced his $307,632 salary by 20 percent for fiscal year 2010-11 as a recognition of hard economic times.

Rulffes would make $246,232 if he stays on the job until June 30, 2011, but he has said he plans to retire as soon as a successor is named. His base pay is comparable to what top school executives make in New York and Los Angeles, and is more than what his counterpart in Chicago earns.

The urging of a search firm to offer a higher salary comes in the wake of $140 million in cuts needed to balance this school year's budget, which was affected by declining tax revenues and state funding cuts. The board is expected to discuss the next superintendent's salary Thursday.

"It will be the most contentious discussion, not just for the board but for the community as a whole," School Board President Terri Janison said. "It's tough times, we really do understand everybody is dealing with job loss, pay cuts -- been there, done that in my family. It's going to be a tough discussion, but we'll have to stay focused on hiring the best quality candidate we want."

As superintendent of the nation's fifth-largest district with 308,000 students, Rulffes' current pay falls slightly below the $250,000 base salaries of Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, and Ramon Cortines, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, according to spokesmen from the nation's two largest districts. New York's enrolls 1.1 million students. The Los Angeles district has 678,441 students.

Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, is the highest paid superintendent among the nation's five largest school systems, earning $275,000 in a district with 333,224 students, according to a spokesman. Ron Huberman, chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools, earns $230,000 in a district with 409,279 students, according to the Chicago district's website.

Tom Jacobson, of McPherson & Jacobson, the Nebraska-based search firm hired by the School Board, said superintendent salaries are even higher when their performance bonuses are factored in.

Such information is not always readily available, he said. "You have to dig deeper to find that."

District spokesmen for New York City, Chicago and Miami said their superintendents do not receive performance-based bonuses.

Mike Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, said Los Angeles does not offer performance-based bonuses either.

Because several prospective superintendent candidates have told Jacobson they would have to take a pay cut to come to Clark County, Jacobson thinks the board should supplement its base salary offer of $270,000 with a performance-based bonus that would increase the pay range to $325,000 to $340,000.

Arlene Ackerman, superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia, recently got a performance bonus of $65,000 on top of her base salary of $338,000, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Pennsylvania district is the nation's eighth largest, with 163,064 students.

According to a 2008 survey by the Council for the Great City Schools, the average salary for a superintendent of a school district with more than 200,000 students was $286,000. The top salary was then $327,500.

Superintendents often make more than the governors in their states.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has proposed capping the salaries of superintendents in his state, earns $175,000 a year. His pay is below that of 75 percent of the superintendents in New Jersey, according to The Newark Star-Ledger.

Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons earns much less than Rulffes. The governor's annual salary is $141,000, but Gibbons will collect less than $133,000 this year because he took a voluntary pay cut of 6 percent.

Steve Joel, a member of the McPherson & Jacobson search firm, has a contract worth $255,000 as superintendent of the Lincoln School District in Nebraska. That's more than twice the annual salary of Nebraska Gov. David Heineman, who makes $105,000, according to an Education Week news report.

Clark County School Board Vice President Carolyn Edwards has worried that the $270,000 salary offered by the district might not be competitive and has supported offering performance-based pay incentives.

Ken Small, Edwards' opponent for re-election in District F, believes the salary issue exposes the board's naiveté on business matters. He is not in favor of increasing the offer.

"There's plenty of people who would be happy to take a job at $270,000, especially in this current economy," Small said.

During a recent School Board meeting, Edwards justified increasing the salary based on advice she said she was given by Jim Rogers, the former chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education and a candidate for superintendent.

Rogers said he has since changed his mind because the cost of living in Las Vegas has declined during the recession. He said the board should wait to see what candidates they get at $270,000 before increasing the offer. He has offered to work for free, if selected.

But Rogers said he understands why some candidates may be asking for so much. Because of the problems and challenges facing the district, which struggles with high dropout rates, state budget cuts and student performance that falls short of federal standards at more than half of its campuses, some candidates may think coming to Las Vegas is a high-stakes gamble. If they don't do well, they might have a hard time finding another job.

"This school district is a mess," Rogers said.

Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug@reviewjournal.com or 702-374-7917.