It was anniounced today the Los Angeles Unified school board members will receive a 174% raise bringing their salary to $125,000 a year.
I am stunned. That is more than our state representatives make and those people work a lot more hours than a school board member.
I wanted to compare L. A. Unified's salary to others in California & I cannot find school board members salaries anywhere online.
Why is it that every public school teacher has his/her salary listed by name yet the salaries of the school board members are not available? I can only guess that other districts are also overpaid.
I don't think a school board member works nearly as hard or as long as a teacher. Why then are they worth so much more? I feel that it shoudl be illegal for a board member to be compensated more than a beginning teacher salary.
Those of you in other states? Do you have access to info on school board slalaries?
In my community, school board members get an honorarium of a few thousand dollars, I believe. They work way more hours than that covers. It is a huge job, actually. I don't begrudge them their stipend. They more than earn it. I'm in NH, and I'm sure that is true in VT as well.
My brother in law was on the school board in his district in Michigan's UP. I'll ask him what his salary was, since I am at a family reunion right now and will see him at dinner.
Ours are paid $32,000 a year. The chair gets an additional $2k. I don't think it would be worth it. They have a ton of meetings and deal with a budget of almost $3 billion for over 110,000 students.
I had to look up my district. Our board members are paid $25,000 a year. They received a raise last year from $15,000. There would be complete outrage here if board members were paid that much. It's considered a part time job.
Wow. Informative thread! I think in the suburban district I live in, it's practically a volunteer position. Maybe a small stipend to off set travel or time. In the large district where I work, they get $30/meeting -- which doesn't sound like much, but I'm told they have 15-20 meetings/week...WHAT???? I remember they use to get cars, but I think that was stopped years ago when the district's spending became under scrutiny.
Apparently Florida has a state law mandating how salaries of school boards and superintendents are to be decided. It is a formula based on several factors, especially the population of the county they serve (all school districts in Florida are county wide). The chart I found from 2015 had salaries ranging from about 24,000 to 42,000 annually for school board members. There was a specific article in the law giving the people the right to refuse a salary or to lower their own salaries. . . I wonder how many school board members took them up on that?
I know it's a volunteer position in my district. I tried to look it up to see if that's statewide, but I can't find anything definite, although I assume it is. I did see that the large city district doesn't pay anything, and theoretically the board members of that district would be working harder than anyone else. My district is tiny (6 schools total) and relatively drama-free compared to others in the area, so I would imagine our board members aren't as busy!
My dad used to be on the school board. He was paid per meeting, usually 3 or 4 meetings a month. It didn't begin to make up for the amount of time he put in. He also received MANY phone calls and letters that were not at all polite. And that used words not normally allowed at school.
I'll bet LAUSD school board members earn that salary. When I worked there eons ago, it was a huge machine, the second largest district in the country (after NY).
The board members of the tiny district I retired from (7 schools) only got a stipend but they worked long and hard.
Do these school board members have regular careers/day jobs where they are making a salary, and are also making this kind of money for serving on the school board?
That's outrageous !!
Seems like many more people will be wanting to run for being a school board member in the next election!!
The point Sonoma is making is that these school board members who were recently elected to the board are touting that the board is finally student friendly. Really?? How is making 125,000 annually going to meeting, making decisions about public schools when you are biased and only favor charter schools? It makes me so angry that our public schools are fading away while charter schools and privatization of education is taking over. And that my tax dollars are going to pay these people's salaries for attending weekly meetings.
In Arizona, they are elected officials. We vote for them like we do for our state reps, senators, govenor, etc. There is no one with any education background on the board. I never really thought about their pay before because I assumed they made what other elected officials in my state make.
Are you in Sonoma County? I'm in Sonoma County and I've noticed that our board members are always dressed to the nines. Makes me wonder what their salaries are!
Ours make at least beginning teacher salary, plus get health insurance(free, I think) and other perks. Most have other full-time jobs. Our district is not large. I was surprised at the salaries school board members get here in FL, for the "work" required most of the time!
WOW! I have never heard of board members getting paid before. In Iowa they are all volunteer positions who get elected by patrons in the district. My Dh has been on our board for 1 term and was just reelected for a 2nd term (5 years). We have trouble getting people to run. I wish he was getting paid.
I haven't been able to find out how much they make, isn't that weird??!! I AM alarmed, though, that our most recent governing board member taught at a charter school in a different district for one year and then ran on an "I'm a Phoenix teacher!" platform. She's NOT a teacher, she doesn't even live in our district, and wow, there she is, voted in! Ugh. I wonder if school boards are just becoming obsolete?
I thought most were volunteer also. You might want to do some digging. They may be making a lot more than you assume.
btw a lausd board member who has a full time job only gets $50,000 per year. And yes there are school board members who work full time. So just how much time is devoted to school board duties if you can hold a full time job and be a board member?
Lots of self congratulations, lots of photo ops, little done for the kids who have to attend these schools. No they don't earn their pay.
Since California has term limits, school boards have become a jumping off place for those who aim for elected positions. Many seek office to get their foot in the door, not to serve the kids.
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07-11-2017, 02:12 PM
