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Madison Metropolitan School District employee salaries, 2008-2011
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Madison Metropolitan School District employee salaries are public records under the Wisconsin Open Records Law.
As of 2008, there were 379,539 employees working for the state of Wisconsin and local governments.[1] Out of these, 240,747 were full-time employees receiving net pay of $998,312,248 per month and 138,792 were part-time employees paid $123,619,591 per month.[1] More than 57% of those employees, or 218,585 employees, were in education or higher education.[1]
The following data for Madison Metropolitan School District was gathered from the district's April 26, 2011 response to a public records request submitted April 14, 2011. The custodian of records for the district at the time was Erik Kass.
The district was unable to provide data regarding personnel car usage for any district-provided vehicles and overtime hours for retiring personnel; further, information regarding mileage reimbursement and personnel cell phone usage iswaspending as of July 3, 2011. The district did not construe the lack of available data and pending data as a denial of the public records request.
Salaries
One employee of the Madison Metropolitan School District was paid a salary of $150,000 or more. Superintendent David A. Nerad has earned over $150,000 per year since 2008.
Board member salaries
The rate of compensation for the seven board members of the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) Board of Education is $350 per month, except for the President of the Board, who is compensated at a rate of $375 per month. For the period of January 1, 2008 - January 7, 2011, board presidents earned a total of $13,500 (calculated as 36 months x $375 per month) and the remaining board members earned a total of $75,600 (calculated as 6 members x $350/month x 36 months).
| Position | Compensation | Total earnings (January 1, 2008 through January 7,2011) |
|---|---|---|
| President of the MMSD Board of Education | $375 per month | $13,500 |
| Board of Education Members (six members) | $350 per month | $75,600 |
Board members do not receive benefits from the district.
Phone use
The district receives monthly bills from cell phone providers of district employees.
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.[2] 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.[2] 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.[2]
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
External links
Footnotes
