I'm responding to the concerns raised about the Superintendent's pay
raise. I can understand why people are concerned and have raised
questions about Supt. Carol Johnson's pay raise, in light of the timing
and the budget concerns. I'd like to provide some background for list
members, because, unfortunately, even though the Board discussed the
following issues in its Superintendent's evaluation last night at a
televised board meeting, none of this was reported in the news.
As to the timing: the school board agreed to raise Supt Johnson's salary
to $190,000 6 months ago, in order to provide stability to the
district's improvement agenda, at a time when she was considering a
comparable offer from the Nashville district. When she accepted the
board's offer last summer, Supt. Johnson announced that she would donate
half of the first year's raise to the Minneapolis Public School
Foundation to support district reform efforts. Last night's school
board action was a formal approval of the raise in an amendment to her
contract, which coincided with her evaluation by the board.
As to the financial implications to the school district of her raise:
the Supt's salary is well within the market for urban school
superintendents salaries, although it is above the average salary.
Further, to keep the Supt's raise in perspective, I think that the
public should be made aware of the outstanding job in private
fundraising that the Supt engages in on behalf of the district. This
year alone, she has raised funds or received pro bono work for the
district in excess of $11 million. That's a lot of money folks, and the
board believes that the Supt has been instrumental in securing the
funding. For example, during this year:
*Supt Johnson has raised over $7 million in private and foundation
contributions for the Minneapolis Public School Foundation to fund the
district's reform efforts. This includes a $4 million grant from the
McKnight Foundation to fund high school reform efforts. In addition, a
small portion of his grant will fund the first six months of the new
chief operating officer's salary;
*Supt Johnson was able to secure $2 million in pro bono consulting work
from McKinsey and Co., a top notch private consulting firm, to help with
the school district's high school reform efforts (this was initially
reported as a $1 million effort, but was corrected/increased by McKinsey
to include the entire McKinsey team's work);
*Supt Johnson was able to secure an additional $2 million in consulting
work from McKinsey and Co., to do a financial analysis of where the
district is spending its money, and how it can reduce its cost during
this budget crunch, without harming schools' academic programs. This
research will be used as the Supt and board works with the public this
winter to address the budget shortfall from the state;
*Supt Johnson was able to secure $250,000 in pro bono consulting work
from EDS, a national systems analysis firm, to assess the district's
needs for systems improvement, as well as a loaned executive for 18
months to help implement the EDS recommendations.
Finally, while there have been complaints from the public about how the
district is top-heavy in central administrators, that is not what we
hear from our accountant, Deloitte Touche. Deloitte Touche presented
their annual audit report with an unqualified opinion at televised board
meeting last week, December 11th. What they told the board, for the
third straight year in a row, was that the district needs a chief
operating officer to oversee financial operations, and commended the
Supt's decision to bring a COO on board, and that the 4% of the
district's budget that is spent on central administration is at least 4%
below the average for school districts, and they believe the disrict is
operating at too lean of a level in the area .
Supt Carol Johnson has been named this year's Minnesota Association of
School Superintendent's "Superintendent of the Year." The Minneapolis
School Board does believe that she is an outstanding superintendent, and
is considered one of the top superintendents in the country.
Catherine Shreves
Minneapolis School Board Chair
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