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Superintendent Salaries and
Contracts
Setting the Superintendent’s Salary and
Establishing/Reviewing the Superintendent’s Contract are
Important Board Functions
Our Objectives
This session is intended…
• To assist Board members in establishing an initial
Superintendent contract,
• To help Board members develop a plan/pattern for
reviewing the contract over time,
• To help Board members identify the resources for
setting a salary and benefits
The Initial Superintendent Salary and Contract
Occur at Selection of a New Superintendent
• The initial contract for a Superintendent frequently
sets the parameters for his/her contract during the
entire tenure in the school district.
• Based upon experience with the search process, it is
wise for a Board to “start from scratch” rather than
simply repeat the contract for the preceding
Superintendent.
• Superintendent contracts frequently have provisions
beyond basic salary and those should be added to the
initial contract carefully.
THE CONTRACT DOES THE FOLLOWING…
It sets the parameters for compensation and some
forms of benefits. Many contracts also set the timing
and sometimes standards for evaluation. The contract
also prescribes the duration for the Superintendent’s
employment—i.e. one year, two years or three years.
Contract wording will usually describe the timeline for
annual activities related to the Superintendent’s work:
1. When the Superintendent will be evaluated; 2. When
a decision will be made to either extend (roll forward)
the contract or allow it to continue to its term; 3.
When/how a decision will be made as to changes in
compensation and changes to other contractual
provisions.
THE SUPERINTENDENT’S FIRST CONTRACT
In most instances, the foundation contract for a
Superintendent is established at the time of initial
employment by the school district. One major task for the
Board and the incoming Superintendent is to agree upon the
various provisions that will be included in that document.
The experience from many years of directing searches
indicates that in most cases the Board will ask that a search
consultant, the district’s attorney, or possibly a staff member
(such as a Human Resources director) represent the Board in
the initial negotiations process. Most Boards prefer not to
have their first substantive work with the new
Superintendent be “bargaining” a contract—in most cases,
that is also preferred by the new Superintendent. There is no
absolutely “right” or “wrong” way to do this, but it is a
crucial step no matter how it is accomplished.
CONTRACT DURATION
A Board may offer a one year, two year or three year
contract under Washington law. In the case of a new
Superintendent, it is unlikely that the person would accept a
one year appointment. A one year duration means that a
decision on continuing employment for the first year person
would probably have to be made just part way into the initial
year and this is generally seen as an inadequate trial period.
In addition, for a person to leave their present job and accept
a new one (possibly requiring sale of a home, and/or a
partner needing to find a new position) most would wish to
be assured of at least two years to demonstrate their skills
and abilities. As indicated above, a Board would need to
make a decision annually as to whether to extend or roll
forward the duration of a contract.
CONTRACT DURATION VS. TERMINATION
If a Superintendent has a two year or three year contract, this
provides a kind of “tenure” protection for the future. Most
Superintendents can only be terminated early for “cause”—e.g.
failure to fulfill a provision(s) of the contract, an act of
unprofessional conduct, a violation of law, etc. If there is no legal
cause for termination, then a Board would usually be required to
allow the Superintendent to work until the end of the contracted
period or “buy out” the remaining portion of the contract in order
to make a change. Some Boards have sought to provide a method
for early termination written into the contract—that represents a
small minority of districts. Most Boards are working with the
typical multiple year contract obligation. One factor which can be
frustrating to Boards of Directors is that while the district usually
must observe the full duration of a Superintendent’s contract, the
Superintendent on the other hand can in most cases ask for and
receive permission to end the contract to take another position or
pursue some other interest. There has not been an instance in this
consultant’s experience where a Board has refused to allow the
Superintendent to leave early.
EXTENDING THE CONTRACT
It should be noted that in a majority of districts in which a
Superintendent has a multiple year contract, the pattern is to roll that
contract forward on an annual basis. This provides a relatively
assured expectation of continued employment. In cases where a
Board chooses not to extend the contract, it is usually imperative for
the Superintendent and Board to seek agreement on how the renewal
or extension could be reinstated at a future decision point. For cases
in which the Board wishes to see the Superintendent change in some
way, failing to extend the contract creates pressure to accomplish
those changes. In other cases, the Superintendent upon learning that
the contract will not be extended will assume that he/she should begin
planning for a job change. These conditions do not occur in the
majority of cases, but some happen periodically. One of the conditions
which might stimulate these circumstances is a significant change in
the makeup of the Board. As the membership of a Board changes over
time, the members who were part of the Board that chose the
Superintendent may be in the minority or even completely gone.
Sometimes a re-constituted Board may simply wish the opportunity to
make its own decision on who the Superintendent should be.
AUTOMATIC EXTENSION OR “ROLLOVER”
Historically, some contracts have contained automatic
“roll over” provisions. In most cases, where this kind
of wording is in the contract, if a Board does not make
an affirmative decision on extension of the contract by
a certain date (e.g. March 1), then the contract is
automatically extended for one year. Many times
where such wording is present, there is an obligation of
the Superintendent to remind the Board of this
provision prior to the automatic extension date. It
seems that such wording is appearing in fewer
contracts over time. The instances of automatic roll
over actions have been rare anyway.
CONTRACT FOR A NEW SUPERINTENDENT
A Board which is in the process of selecting a new Superintendent
will in most cases carefully review the contract which is in place for
the incumbent person and decide what provisions should be
continued in the new document or should be dropped. During the
tenure of a Superintendent there are frequently additions to or
modifications to the original contract. Hence, the contract
document at the time of a Superintendent’s departure may be
structured for that individual in some unique ways; e.g. some form
of insurance, annuity, etc. It is usually wise for a Board to consider
offering a contract to a new Superintendent that is primarily aimed
at the standard provisions found in such contracts. If the new
Superintendent wishes something unique then it can emerge in the
negotiation process and be considered by the Board. It will also be
possible to consider changes for the future on an annual basis if
the Board and Superintendent agree on modifications.
STANDARD CONTRACT PROVISIONS
 There are numerous contract provisions which are generally
standard in a Superintendent’s contract. As a Board reviews a
current contract or is setting a new contract, it is helpful to
determine which of these conventional provisions are present or
missing. There are sample contract versions available which
could serve as a kind of template to assess the nature of a
contract. (There is a sample which was developed several years
ago through a cooperative WSSDA/WASA effort. There is a
newer version of this sample contract modified by WASA and
which is available. It is also possible, of course, to obtain sample
contracts from other school districts for ideas and comparisons.
The negotiation of a contract between a Superintendent and
Board is usually considered confidential—the contract, once
acted upon by the parties, is a public document which can be
requested and must be disclosed. Search consultants would
normally have samples available to share with a Board.)
MOST CONTRACTS WILL HAVE…
• Date of initial Board action upon the contract.
• Duration of the contract (one, two three years).
• Days in the work year (usually 260, minus paid holidays and paid
vacation days).
• Annual salary (this would be the “base salary” not including
discretionary extra time, annuities, travel/vehicle allowance, etc.) It
is this “base salary” which is frequently given out as the
Superintendent’s salary—the more accurate picture is “total
compensation” which includes the extra forms of compensation
plus the base salary amount.
• Usually the contract will assure that salaries for subsequent years
will not be less than salary established in the initial year of the
contract.
• There is often wording which describes the conditions which would
be considered for discharge of a Superintendent. Most often, the
wording indicates that the Superintendent could be discharged for
cause. The concept of cause has substance in the law and would
protect against discharge for some arbitrary reason(s).
ADDITIONAL CONTRACT PROVISIONS…
• Most contracts will describe the prerogatives of the
Superintendent to organize, reorganize and arrange the
administrative/supervisory staff, select, place and transfer staff
members as he/she believes best. This wording is almost always
modified by the statement that these actions are subject to
approval of the Board. The wording pictures what is normally the
domain of the Superintendent, but offers the caveat of final Board
oversight. (This wording is frequently also included in district
policy.)
• In most cases, there is wording which obligates the Board members
to refer all criticism, complaints and suggestions called to their
attention to the Superintendent for study and recommendation.
(This commitment on the part of Board members will also often be
found in district policy and in a Board/Superintendent Protocol.)
• Usually there is a statement which grants permission to the
Superintendent to engage in outside work which does not conflict
with contractual duties. This would be done with prior
notification/permission of the Board.
• The Superintendent will normally be encouraged to attend relevant
meetings, conferences, and training sessions at district expense
according to district policy.
ADDITIONAL CONTRACT PROVISIONS
• Most contracts will provide the Superintendent with paid membership in
one or more civic organizations and usually two professional associations
(WASA, AASA). The specific civic organizations will frequently be selected
by the Board.
• Sick leave is usually provided as is offered to other full time staff members.
(If sick leave buy back is available to the Superintendent, it should be
specifically mentioned in the contract.)
• The number of vacation days provided the Superintendent is at the Board’s
discretion; i.e. there is no prescribed minimum or maximum. Experience in
developing Superintendent contracts indicates that the average is likely
between 23 and 25 days. The number of vacation days may be increased by
Board action during the life of the contract. A widespread benefit provided
many Superintendents is the ability to “cash in” a number of unused
vacation days on an annual basis. The most frequently seen wording would
be “up to 10”, although there are numerous variations at a lower and higher
range. This would be considered a valuable benefit in that it contributes to
retirement earnings and, it does not show up in the statement of “base
salary”, since it is discretionary and may vary from none up to the maximum
allowable in any given year. This provision will almost always state that the
Superintendent may carry and cash in at termination up to 30 days of
unused vacation—if the person is retiring, this would be additional income
counted for retirement purposes.
ADDITIONAL CONTRACT PROVISIONS
• It appears that under present legal interpretations that a
Superintendent may be provided only the medical/dental/vision
insurance benefits offered to all other administrative employees. So, if
other administrators receive only the state allocation, then the
Superintendent would be limited to that as well. The offering of other
insurance to a Superintendent (e.g. life insurance, disability insurance,
etc.) should be checked with legal counsel.
• It is typical for a Superintendent to be offered a vehicle allowance.
Some of the amounts for this benefit have been seen from $200 a
month to $1,000 per month.
• Many Boards will require a district paid comprehensive medical
examination every year or on a regular basis. The results are
confidential between the Board and the Superintendent. In some cases,
there will be a required statement by a physician as to the medical
fitness of the Superintendent for the duties of the position. There is also
a pattern of describing further the conditions under which a
Superintendent may be declared disabled or unable to fulfill the duties
of the job. There is usually wording which gives a process for such a
decision to be considered and what will occur if, ultimately, the
Superintendent is found unable to perform.
ADDITIONAL CONTRACT PROVISIONS
 It is common in the majority of districts to require the Superintendent to reside in the
school district. This may be stated only in the requirements for the position or, most
often, will be included in the contract. The details of this requirement will frequently
be subject to interpretation by the Board in response to the specific circumstances of
the Superintendent.
 The dates or pattern for evaluating the performance of the Superintendent are
almost always stated in the contract. The most frequent provision is to require at
least two points for Superintendent evaluation during a school year; i.e. sometime
midyear and toward the end of the contract year. This requirement, accompanied by
the details of the evaluation process, is most often stated in a separate document
such as a Board policy or procedure. (A Board is required by law to evaluate the
Superintendent annually. The wording in the contract creates an additional legal
requirement. There are no prescriptions for particular evaluation processes, but it is
best if they are developed mutually by the Board and Superintendent and are
responsive to the particular needs of the district. There are model evaluation
processes under development and they could be considered by local Boards for the
future.) The degree to which the actual evaluation process and any resulting
documentation of the process is confidential is somewhat uncertain. Most Boards
and Superintendents carry out the actual evaluation discussion in Executive Session.
If the Board and legal counsel believe that there should also be a publicly disclosed
result, some will issue a written report of the process and conclusions of the Board.
ADDITIONAL CONTRACT PROVISIONS
 It is imperative to include wording as to when and how the Board
will determine whether to offer the Superintendent an extended
contract or whether to allow the contract to continue towards its
expiration date. It is usually in the best interests of the district
and the Superintendent to have this occur half way or perhaps
two thirds of the way through each contract year. This permits
both parties time to adjust to the prospective employment future
for the Superintendent.
 Contracts will usually contain “hold harmless” wording which
assures the Superintendent that he/she will be defended by the
district from legal action provided that the Superintendent was
acting within the scope of the position and in good faith. The
vehicle for this protection is errors and omissions insurance
coverage carried by the school district. It is now common for this
protection to be extended to the Superintendent’s family.
 Most contracts will also contain a “savings clause” which states
that if any provision of the contract is found contrary to law, the
rest of the contract will continue in effect.
SUPERINTENDENT COMPENSATION
The task of considering the total compensation for a Superintendent will face a Board at the
time of employing a new Superintendent and usually on an annual basis when the duration of
the contract is addressed. The law does not prescribe legal parameters for Superintendent
salaries. As indicated in earlier points, there may be a variety of methods of providing
compensation for a Superintendent. When the initial contract and compensation are set for
an incoming Superintendent, the Board will refer to the salary for the prior Superintendent
and the salaries for Superintendents in other districts (usually taking into account
geographical location, size of district, economics for the region, etc.) In some instances
where a Superintendent has been in place for several years, the salary “market” may have
increased more rapidly than the incumbent’s salary. Since the school district is to some
degree competing for strong applicants, there may be a kind of sticker shock when surveying
salary levels and what will be needed to attract the applicant of choice. Setting the salary of a
Superintendent or increasing compensation for the Superintendent during the life of the
contract is to some degree a balancing act. A Board will usually want to set the starting salary
high enough to attract the candidate, but will also be conscious of the condition of the
district’s budget, whether other staff members have received increases recently, the way that
the new Superintendent’s salary will appear in comparison to other Superintendents, the
climate in the community regarding education salaries and perhaps other factors. A Board
must decide whether salary increases which come through from the Legislature will be
passed on to the Superintendent (although those have been rare in recent years.) Some
Boards follow a prescribed pattern for considering salary increases for a Superintendent. In
numerous districts, the Board identifies a set number of other districts, gathers information
about the salary levels and benefits in those school systems and determines that the local
Superintendent should be paid a percentage of the average of those districts (often the mean
compensation level.) From a strategic standpoint, Boards usually do not wish to be at the
highest comparative levels nor at the lowest.
GATHERING COMPARATIVE SALARY INFORMATION
A. So, assuming that a Board will wish to review the Superintendent’s salary annually and compare it to
other representative salaries, where does the Board find accurate information for the state and region?
There are two fundamental tools in beginning this investigation: 1. The annual report of Superintendent
salaries issued by OSPI (Table 15 of the School District Personnel Summary reports for the current school
year on the OSPI website under School Apportionment and Financial Services); 2. The annual ranking of
school districts by enrollment size, also issued by OSPI (Table 47 of the above mentioned Personnel
Summary Reports.) The OSPI salary reports are derived directly from the budgets submitted by each
school district. The Superintendent salary figures are labeled as “Total Salary” and are supposed to include
everything that is paid by contract to the Superintendent that is considered salary. This would include
actual base salary plus compensation such as a district’s contribution to a Superintendent’s annuity.
Theoretically, compensation such as a fixed salary stipend (say for extra time) would also be included. One
of the significant forms of additional compensation that does not show up in the OSPI figures would be
income which is uncertain; i.e. extra income which could vary and therefore would not be known for
certain when the budget is set. The income from cashing in unused vacation days would be in this
category. Another form of compensation may be pay for additional time which the Superintendent turns
in during the school year. This kind of per diem income can be substantial—e.g. 15 days at $832 per diem
rate would calculate to be $12,480. There are other benefits of monetary value which may not be evident in
the OSPI figure of Total Salary—a cell phone stipend, a technology allowance (perhaps for a computer),
paid memberships in professional organizations, funds to help pay for additional training, travel/vehicle
allowance, etc. [There are two other columns in the OSPI Superintendent salary report which should be
mentioned—Insurance Benefits and Mandatory Benefits. Theoretically, the Insurance Benefits column
would include all insurance compensation paid to the Superintendent—in actuality, this column is not at all
consistent in reporting the total of various kinds of insurance. The same is true of the Mandatory Benefits
column—this information is not consistently accurate and even OSPI staff when contacted was not sure
what is included in the amounts reported for various districts.]
ADDITIONAL SALARY RESOURCES
An additional resource for checking data on Superintendent
salaries and limited contract information is the study prepared
annually by staff of the Kitsap Sun (newspaper). The website
for this study is http://data.kitsapsun.com/waschool#axzz3G3A4evKa
This study contains a wealth of general information on school
districts in Washington, including the names of virtually all
staff members, lists of schools and other sites in the district
and, for our purposes, the salary for the Superintendent. Also
included for the Superintendent are figures for Insurance
Benefits and Mandatory Benefits—these figures appear to be
taken directly from the OSPI Superintendent Salary report and
would therefore be variable in terms of accuracy.
S.I.R.S.
A third source of salary and contract information is the annual report issued by the School
Information Research Service (SIRS). This study has been issued annually for many years. It
is prepared by office staff of the Washington Association of School Administrators (WASA).
Each school district in the state is invited to submit salary, benefit and contract information
for the various categories of employees including administrators. One of the attractions of
this report is that it attempts to report for all categories of employees—the OSPI available
information is not broken down for all categories of employees in the same way. One
limitation of the SIRS report is that the submission of information from school districts is
voluntary; i.e. only those districts which submit information are included so there are voids in
the data. Another limitation is that the information supplied by districts is not necessarily
taken directly from the school district budget—it may be gathered from other district
documents and could be different from the actual budget data. A potential advantage of the
SIRS report is that it contains columns for additional benefits, extra days, supplemental pay.
This information is not categorized in this fashion in OSPI reports. However, the accuracy of
what is reported is quite variable. Finally, the SIRS report is intended to be available by
“subscription only” so districts would be expected to pay a fee for the full, annual report.
If a school district is going to be thorough in gathering Superintendent salary information, it
would be prudent to examine the OSPI reports, the information from the Kitsap Sun website
and the SIRS study. It would also be very helpful to obtain copies of the Superintendent
contracts from districts used in the comparison group. (These contracts are public
documents, but there may be some hesitation by districts in sharing the information.)
The results of gathering salary information for a given group of districts is displayed below
DISTRICT
FTE ENROLLMENT
Anacortes
Deer Park
Pullman
Orting
Meridian
Ephrata
Lakewood
Wahluke
Rochester
Woodland
Ridgefield
North Franklin
Blaine
North Mason
Granite Falls
Sultan
Eatonville
Colville
Medical Lake
Mount Baker
Hockinson
2,520
2,376
2,341
2,218
2,179
2,174
2,171
2,090
2,048
2,042
2,004
2,004
1,993
1,974
1,961
1,913
1,799
1,752
1,748
1,745
1,743
AVERAGE (MEAN)
SALARY
$ 157,018
118,000
135,000
127,370
132,635
134,369
152,358
130,867
118,371
131,619
131,016
124,631
141,089
136,893
144,129
144,922
132,989
119,424
160,926
142,600
125,798
$135,335
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