School board salaries in America's largest school districts
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Last updated: 2017 Annual salaries for school board members vary significantly across the largest school districts in the U.S. by enrollment. Ballotpedia found that annual salaries ranged from $0 to $125,000 for individuals serving on a school board in one of the 10 largest school districts in the nation during the 2017-2018 school year. In the three largest districts—the New York City Department of Education, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and Chicago Public Schools—only members serving on the Los Angeles Board of Education receive an annual salary.
According to the National School Boards Association, school board members are typically volunteers who receive no annual compensation.
- 75 percent of small-district school board members receive no salary
- Less than 40 percent of large-district school board members work more than 40 hours per month on board-related duties in return for a salary[1]
Further details on school board member salaries in the 10 largest school districts can be found in the table below.
Members of the Los Angeles Board of Education—the second-largest school district in the nation—receive the highest annual salary. Beginning in September 2017, board members with no outside employment were eligible to receive $125,000 per year, and members with outside employment were eligible to receive an annual salary of $50,000. These salaries were approved by the LAUSD Board of Education Compensation Review Committee on July 10, 2017, and constituted a 174 percent raise for those members with no outside employment.[2]
In Florida, state law set the annual salary for school board members at $42,570 in 2016.[3] There are five Florida school districts in the largest 10—Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Broward County Public Schools, Hillsborough County Public Schools, Orange County Public Schools, and the School District of Palm Beach County—ranking as the fourth-, sixth-, eighth-, ninth-, and 10th-largest districts, respectively. Members of the Clark County School District school board in Nevada—the fifth-largest school district in the U.S.—receive a $9,000 annual salary.[4]
In the remaining districts—the New York City Department of Education (largest), Chicago Public Schools (third-largest), and the Houston Independent School District (seventh-largest)—board members do not receive an annual salary.[5][6]
What is a school board?
A school board is the governing body of a school district responsible for establishing the policies and regulations by which their local schools are run. Depending on the school district, school boards may have different titles, such as board of education, board of directors, board of trustees, school board, or school board committee. Regardless of the title, all school boards are comprised of elected or appointed members who work together to oversee their districts.
While the duties of school boards are often similar, the way board members are chosen, the length and number of board terms, and the number of board positions varies widely from district to district and state to state. School board members are elected in one of two ways: at large or by district. In an at-large school board election, all registered voters in the school district may vote for any of the candidates on the ballot. Elections may also be held by district, in which only the registered voters of a particular geographic area may vote for a particular seat up for election.
Some school boards are appointed rather than elected. Appointments are most often made by either a city's mayor or the state department of education. In Chicago Public Schools, board members have been appointed by the mayor since 1995, while the Little Rock School District school board has been governed by the Arkansas Department of Education since 2015.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ National School Board Association, "Frequently Asked Questions," accessed July 17, 2017
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "L.A. school board salaries more than double to $125,000 a year," July 10, 2017
- ↑ Florida Secretary of State, "Salaries of Elected County Constitutional Officers and School District Officials Pursuant to the Salary Formula in Chapter 145, Florida Statutes," accessed July 17, 2017
- ↑ Transparent Nevada, "Clark County School District," accessed July 17, 2017
- ↑ Houston Independent School District, "BOARD MEMBERS COMPENSATION AND EXPENSES," accessed July 17, 2017
- ↑ Education Weekly, "$125,000 Salary to Serve on a School Board? In Los Angeles, Yes.," July 12, 2017
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