Education’s dirty little secret in Illinois is that if you want to make the big bucks, you ditch the classroom for a cushy gig in administration.
We should air that out in the open.
The Tribune’s recent analysis of 2024 salaries shed light on the pay of school district superintendents versus student achievement, highlighting some of the districts where the problem is worst. We’ll add here that the starkest contrast in many instances is how much administrators make as compared with how well kids in their district can do the basics like reading and math — but there’s also a pocketbook component to the equation. We think it’s worth reflecting on superintendent pay in light of how much regular taxpayers in that district earn, as well as the property tax burden they’re forced to shoulder.
A prime example is Dolton School District 148, which serves a shrinking number of pre-K through eighth-grade students. To be exact, 1,968 in 2024, down 10% from 2,197 in 2019.
Longtime Superintendent Kevin Nohelty, who retired after the 2024-25 school year, raked in a base salary of $450,000 for serving as CEO of this relatively small district. Nohelty was the highest-paid superintendent in all of Illinois — his base pay alone well exceeded that of the president of the United States. Nohelty’s interim successor is earning $1,500 a day — which approaches $400,000 on an annualized basis.
Under Nohelty, the district was deeply troubled academically. Just 19% of students were proficient in reading, and a dismal 6.6% were proficient in math in 2024.
You can see the mismatch.
But what’s happening in Dolton is just one example. Rich Township High School District 227, just south of Dolton, is another. That district covers just one school with about 2,300 students — and only a 10th of its students met state reading standards in 2024.
Yet Superintendent Johnnie Thomas pulled in total compensation exceeding $423,000 last year, making him the fourth-highest paid superintendent in the state.
Tribune analysis points out that, by contrast, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez earned $356,000 in total compensation in 2024 to manage more than 600 schools with over 300,000 students.
How are these outlandishly high salaries justified? As in the business world, where the gulf between what CEOs are paid and the median salaries of their employees has grown exponentially over the years, school districts often benchmark superintendent compensation to the amounts neighboring districts pay. As one district raises pay, others follow suit — and pretty soon you see compensation that common sense would dictate is out of hand.
Meanwhile, the families paying these bills are far less well off — especially when you factor in rising property taxes. For example, a Civic Federation report found that between 2005 and 2019, the effective tax rate for homeowners in Dolton went up 108%. Homeowners’ property tax rate may have doubled, but they’re certainly not getting twice the value from their schools.
These sky-high salaries fall under the purview of local school boards, and we urge board members to scrutinize them more carefully rather than approving generous contracts by default. These are complex, demanding jobs, but the public deserves reassurance that pay decisions reflect both responsibility and the results.
Without greater accountability and restraint, superintendent compensation will remain disconnected from what most families experience in their schools — leaving taxpayers footing the bill and student outcomes unacceptably lagging.
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