Bethlehem Area School District employee salaries, 2008-2011

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Bethlehem Area School District is a school district in Pennsylvania. In 2004, the district had more than 1,000 employees.

Salaries and benefits

Salaries

Sunshine Review reviewed Bethlehem Area School District salaries for 2008-2011. The information was gathered from a letter sent by the district after Sunshine Review filed a public records request. There was one employee earning over $150,000 in annual salary in 2008 and 2009 and none in 2010.

First name	Last name	Position	Year	Salary
Joseph	Lewis	Superintendent	2008	$157,484.58
Joseph	Lewis	Superintendent	2009	$176,187.32

Benefits

The letter sent to Sunshine Review outlined benefits for the Superintendent:

Superintendent benefit	2011
Healthcare	$20,256 est.
Relocation expenses	$3,000 (one time)
Car allowance	$350 per month

Phone use

The district issued 28 cell phones for the 2010-2011 school year which was down from 37 in 2009-2010 and 74 in 2008-2009.

School year	2007-2008	2008-2009	2009-2010	2010-2011
District cell phones	73	74	37	28

Car use

The district did not issue any personal cars from 2008-2011.

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 method 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.

A study published by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia said the city of Philadelphia faced challenges owing to the cost of public employee pensions. The report claimed the amount that Philadelphia paid to pension recipients limited the city’s ability to use its budget effectively.

The report said there were more individuals receiving pension benefits—33,907 claimants in 2006—than workers in the city—28,701. The authors recommended three steps towards addressing the problem of high costs in pensions: improved data collection, expanded transparency initiatives, and reductions to the city's overall budget.

Salary schedules can be published as ranges, not as specific compensation figures, and may leave out compensation received through health and retirement benefits, as well as benefits such as commuter allowances and cell phone reimbursements. This project aimed to close the gap and provide a more accurate picture of public employee salaries for the sake of public education and transparency.

See also

• Pennsylvania local government salary: School Districts
• Public employee salary
• Pennsylvania public school, salary
• Bethlehem Area School District, Pennsylvania

 

External links

• Bethlehem Area School District
• State Budget Solutions -- Pennsylvania
• GlassDoor.com -- Bethlehem Area School District salaries
• Teacher Salary Info -- Average Teacher Salary in Bethlehem Area School District
• "School boards, administrators do the fiscal waltz each year," The Express-Times, September 26, 2004