School & District Management

San Francisco Superintendent Gets 27 Percent Pay Raise

By Corey Mitchell — February 12, 2015 1 min read
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San Francisco Unified School Superintendent Richard Carranza will get a hefty raise with his three-year contract renewal.

Under the new pact, the district will pay Carranza an extra $65,000 annually, bringing his pay to $310,000 per year. That’s a 27 percent increase.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the “increase alone is about the same as the average salary of a teacher in the district and more than double the 12 percent raise that will be given to teachers over the next three years.”

School board members praised Carranza, who served as deputy superintendent prior to taking the top job in 2012.

“Consistent and stable leadership is a hallmark of districts where they have really moved the needle on achievement, and given our positive experience with Richard up to this point, there is every reason to keep moving forward,” board member Rachel Norton said in a statement.

According to a 2014 survey conducted by the Council of the Great City Schools, the average tenure of urban superintendents is slightly more than three years.

The council is a coalition of 67 of the nation’s largest K-12 school districts, one of which is preparing to hire a new school chief.

The Albuquerque Journal reports that Santa Fe, N.M., schools Superintendent Joel Boyd is the lone finalist to lead the 80,000-student Fort Worth, Texas, school district.

The school board voted to hire Boyd over the weekend, but Texas law requires a three-week waiting period after announcing a finalist before the district can offer a formal contract. The district has been without a permanent superintendent since June.

Boyd took Santa Fe’s top job in summer 2012.

The Ferguson-Florissant, Mo., school system has also hired a new superintendent, Joseph Davis of the Plymouth, N.C. schools, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

Davis agreed to a three-year contract with a $200,000 annual salary, the paper reports. He begins his new job July 1.

The city of Ferguson and its school district, which serves 11,000 students from nine communities, landed in the national spotlight last summer after white police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. Unrest and protests there delayed the start of school by two weeks.

A version of this news article first appeared in the District Dossier blog.