I did the math; now it's your turn

My series on school leaders' salaries was not about "my superintendent is making too much money."

Of course, it's human nature to look at the chart of salaries and compare one superintendent to the other and scream about how unfair it is.

But that was not the purpose of the series. The focus was on true compensation. When a school board approves a contract, reporters are often given only the base salary and by what percent that base pay will be increased over the extent of the contract.

Racing against the deadline clock, reporters often run with those figures because there just isn't enough time to get any more details, especially when your editor is hovering over your shoulder at 9 p.m., asking "Is it done yet?"

So what are we missing in those stories?

True compensation.

Base pay is just the starting point before school boards add on all the extras. What we don't know is what you, the taxpayer, will pay for your superintendent, including bonuses, meeting stipends, annuities, health insurance, retirement benefits and so much more.

So how did I get the numbers? It would have been super easy if I could have called the school district and asked for all that information. But, legally, the districts don't have to give it to me.

Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, you can't ask for a laundry list of numbers. You need to ask for documents that support the numbers you want.

To find the true compensation for the 41 superintendents in Will and Grundy counties, I requested copies of all contracts issued to the superintendent through the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

I also requested copies of checks and payroll documents issued to superintendents for the 2008-09 school year, including salary, bonuses, health insurance premium contributions, life insurance, tax deferred retirement accounts and additional perks, including vacation payout, sick time payout, annuities, travel expenses, tuition reimbursements, meeting stipends, moving expenses and housing assistance.

I sent out the letters July 31.

You're reading this in November because it took months to pore over the information, deciphering each school district's payroll documents and double checking those figures with the language in the contract.

Each district has a file and some are about an inch thick, full of documents.

But it was worth reading them -- more than once.

That's how I found out that Plainfield School District overpaid their superintendent's annuity. The payroll information didn't match what was in the contract.

And, on a third read of the contract, I found a separate category -- a bank of 25.5 vacation days to be cashed in for a salary bump.

A payroll stub of $75,273 clued me into a $333,333 compensation benefit to Mike Sass, the superintendent of New Lenox School District.

To make sure I was correct, I e-mailed each school district, asking them to verify that the numbers were right.

If there were mistakes, they were more than happy to correct the figures. Often, superintendents called to explain the numbers.

With vacation and furlough, it took me a good three months to compile all the information. But the numbers are just half the story. It was important to read not only the current contract, but past contracts to get the big picture.

My first boss said a story starts a new life once it hits your driveway. And, it's very true. Reader reactions varied from frustration at the school board to anger at me. The art of Superintendent John Harper on a $100 bill triggered a lot of emotions.

One longtime educator wrote "the add-on, cartoonlike embellishment for Dr. Harper's (dollar) and Sass (holding a card) was offensive ... to be blunt. The shots also added an editorial stigma to your factual reporting work. I am not sure where your art department was heading or why the cutesy detailing was necessary. But, in the few conversations I have had since the articles ran, the disrespect for Harper and Sass was universally not appreciated. There was no call or justification for the cheap shot (picture) or to make a spectacle of either educator. It was an insult to your work."

Ron Kazmar, Plainfield's past school board president, demanded an apology from the editors.

Others commended the articles, saying more investigative stories should be done. A couple of people asked me to tell their stories about situations when they felt they were treated unfairly by a school district.

So now that the series is over, what can the public do besides complain and call OpenLine?

Be government savvy. Ask for the total cost of new contracts. Ask for a salary schedule of the contract including all benefits -- such as full health care coverage. If the board is fiscally minded, a schedule was presented behind closed doors, showing the cost for the entire contract and all of its perks. Ask for that.

If the board was never presented such a chart, ask how they could have voted on the contract without knowing the total cost to taxpayers.

There's a new law in place that should make it easier to learn the true salaries of your administrators.

But the law is so vague that taxpayers may be disillusioned into thinking they are getting the true cost when they aren't.

The big mistake is that the law does not state that the compensation must be given for the previous school year.

School district's fiscal years are from July 1 to June 30. And, superintendents don't cash in unused vacation days or sick days until the end of June. So the true earnings won't be revealed until the end of June.

If a district posts compensation for the current school year on its Web site, it's only telling half of the story.

As the fiscal watchdogs of the community, residents must go to board meetings and kindly ask that the district post complete information on the Web site, updating it at the end of June.

Or ask the board to post the previous school year's information so you can find out the true earnings.

Request the superintendent's contract, which will tell you what is coming around the bend when the superintendent retires or leaves the district.

This way, when the board gets ready to approve another contract, you can stand up and say whether you approve of an extra year's salary or lifetime health care benefits as part of the retirement package.

Now, you have the true compensation of your superintendent. What you decide to do about it is up to you.