The average superintendent salary in Texas crept up just 2.8 percent to $120,689 for 2010–11, according to the Salaries and Wages in Texas Public Schools: 2010–11 Superintendent Report. That’s the smallest gain in average salary for Texas superintendents in more than a decade. The small gain is likely due to shrinking budgets and concerns about future drops in revenue.
Changes in average salaries across enrollment size ranged from zero to just over 4 percent. Superintendents in the largest districts in Texas, those with more than 50,000 students, earn an average base salary of $276,545 this year. That figure did not change significantly from last year, dropping by about $600. Salaries for their counterparts in districts with enrollment between 25,000 and 50,000 saw a 4 percent jump to $234,841 on average. Changes in average salary in enrollment groups below 3,000 students ranged from 2 percent to 3 percent, some of the slowest growth in years.
The small jump in average salary is not surprising considering the smaller-than-normal pay raises for superintendents. For this year, superintendent pay increases were 3.3 percent on average. That’s down from last year’s 3.7 percent average increase. Like the average salary, the average pay increase is also the lowest amount in more than 10 years.
In addition to smaller pay increases, fewer superintendents received a pay increase this year. Across Texas, 30 percent of superintendents had their salary frozen for 2010–11. In districts with more than 10,000 students, just over half (51 percent) of superintendents had their salary frozen. Districts with 3,000 to 10,000 students gave the largest increases (3.5 percent on average).
In addition to base salary and health insurance benefits, 85 percent of responding districts provide their superintendent with at least one additional benefit or allowance not generally available to other staff. The most common allowance provided is coverage of cell phone or Internet expenses for the superintendent with an average of $1,222 paid. Half of responding districts pay this type of allowance to the superintendent.
Next are membership dues with 44 percent of districts paying an average of $838. That’s followed by transportation benefits, with 37 percent of districts providing the superintendent with a car allowance. The average allowance paid for 2010–11 is $6,164 but there is a wide variation largely correlated to district size. The average car allowance in districts with fewer than 3,000 students is $4,935; in districts with more than 10,000 students, the average is $9,176.
There were few notable changes in the proportion of districts offering additional benefits and allowances or in the amounts spent by districts. Some of the notable benefits are provided by the following percentage of districts:
Like last year, 10 percent of superintendents received a bonus for job performance, remaining with the district, or another factor. The average amount paid was $7,874, roughly 5 percent of the 2009–10 base salary. That’s a 22 percent jump from last year’s average payout of $6,468. More than half of the bonuses paid (58 percent) were to reward job performance. Thirty percent were retention bonuses for the superintendent.
Including the 10 percent who received a bonus this year, a total of 15 percent of superintendents are eligible for some performance incentive. That means some superintendents had an opportunity for a bonus but did not meet the targets needed to receive it. In districts with more than 25,000 students, nearly one-quarter of superintendents have an incentive opportunity built into their employment contract.
Many superintendents also receive extra retirement benefits from their districts. This may include the district picking up all or a portion of the superintendent’s share of TRS payroll deductions. A smaller percentage (3.5 percent) of districts pay that cost for their superintendent, spending an average of $10,208. Five districts reported helping the superintendent purchase additional TRS service credits at an average cost to the district of $22,964. That type of extra benefit is typically only found in the contracts of superintendents who have worked in states other than Texas for a portion of their career.
The most common type of retirement benefit for superintendents involves the district making contributions to a tax-deferred retirement account set up for the superintendent. Ten percent of districts contribute an average of $8,510 to an account of this type. This practice is becoming a very common benefit in larger school districts. Twenty-eight percent of districts with more than 10,000 students have this benefit, including nearly half of districts with more than 50,000 students.
Overall, nearly three-quarters of the districts that contribute to an account for the superintendent require the superintendent to remain on the job for some number of years before they are vested in the district contributions. This includes 86 percent of the districts with fewer than 10,000 students with the benefit. Those districts require a minimum number of years of service before the superintendent is fully vested, with five years being the most common. On the other hand, only 48 percent of the larger districts (over 10,000 enrollment) with this benefit have a minimum service requirement for vesting. That suggests that smaller districts are using this benefit as a retention tool and larger districts are using it to enrich the superintendent’s compensation package.
Superintendents in Texas have been in their current position for an average of five years. This is up from four years, which was the average tenure seen in the superintendent survey results from the past several years. This marks the first statistically significant change in superintendent tenure in more than a decade, but it may be too soon to tell if this will continue. Individuals across all employment sectors are delaying retirement or putting off job changes in light of uncertain economic conditions. Texas superintendents apparently are no exception to this trend.
Overall, superintendents have an average of seven years of experience in the job in any district and 26 years of experience in public education. Ten percent of respondents (76 districts) have a new superintendent for the 2010–11 school year. Of those, 62 percent hired a first-time superintendent.
The survey results reported in this article are taken from the 2010–11 Superintendent Report. Eight hundred and eight of the 1,029 independent school districts in Texas participated in this year’s survey, representing 79 percent of districts. Full survey highlights 
are available on the TASB HR Services Web Site.
The 2010–11 Superintendent Report is the first of four survey reports published each year by TASB HR Services that comprise the annual Salaries and Wages in Texas Public Schools survey. HR Services members can access the full report in myTASB or run comparisons reports through their DataCentral subscription. Nonmembers can purchase and download the full report from the TASB Store .
