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School Board Pay Excessive

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By WILLIAM L. BAINBRIDGE

Special to the Tribune

Published: February 8, 2009

As Florida school districts face the most pressing financial crisis in modern history, an opportunity has once again surfaced that would help level the playing field of school governance with the other 49 states.

Providing salaries for school board members goes much deeper than the money that would be saved by compensating Florida school policymakers at a rate similar to other states.

In counties across Florida, school board members are being asked to consider legislative action passed in Tallahassee in January to reduce their salary rate on a voluntary basis. This would permit them to share in the sacrifice of budget cuts experienced by teachers, support staff and administrators by lowering their previously state-mandated salaries to a level that would nonetheless continue to place them in the top 2 percent of highest-paid board members, on average, in the country.

Salaries Run Into The $40,000s

The initial bill proposed by Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, would have cut school board salaries 5 percent, consistent with the reduction lawmakers adopted for themselves in 2008. Salaries of Florida school board members range from $23,000 to more than $40,000, completely out of line with county school board member salaries in other states. Florida board members also receive medical insurance, retirement and other benefits usually reserved for full-time professional and support staff.

It is an anomaly that many newly arrived Florida taxpaying residents can't begin to comprehend. Why should school board members be paid higher than many professional teachers for what should be a civic responsibility?

In a majority of states, service performed by unpaid board members is considered "giving back to the community." If paid at all, board members are only given small honoraria for board meeting attendance, often contributed voluntarily back to the school system's foundation or another charity.

Boards Had Set Own Pay

Florida uniquely has had a long tradition of state-set school board salaries, keyed to enrollment levels in the 67 countywide districts. A few years ago, Florida lawmakers decided to allow the boards to establish their own pay as an attempt to embarrass the members into coming into line. When it did not work, the Legislature returned to setting the salaries. Perhaps it will work now.

The real problem with a salaried board is that the money received encourages board members to spend more time on the job than governance and policy development responsibilities require, thereby leading to instances of micro-managing or meddling with the work of trained professionals hired to run the classrooms, ancillary services and schools. The tasks of developing policies, if done correctly, should take only a few hours a month.

Floridians are justifiably proud of the many world-class universities, colleges and health centers. The many unsalaried board members of these institutions are highly qualified, meet infrequently and hire top executives they recruit and evaluate.

By contrast, Florida's public school districts continue to lead the nine most-populous states in student dropout rates while trailing these states in college entrance examination results, norm-referenced tests and graduation rates. At the same time, we have the highest paid board members, and the highest pay is going to members in Florida's lowest-performing districts.

Local school board members should model themselves after effective university board members by setting realistic policies, goals and objectives as volunteers.

BOARD SALARIES

Salaries of school board members statewide range from $23,116 to $40,932. In Hillsborough County, board members earn $40,932 a year, the highest in the state and shared with Miami-Dade, Brevard, Orange and Palm Beach counties. In Pasco County, members are paid $37,714, and in Pinellas, the salary is $40,614.

Source: www.floridalcir.gov

William L. Bainbridge of St. Augustine is a Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Dayton's SchoolMatch Institute, a national educational auditing, research and data organization.

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