Something interesting happened this past weekend while I was emceeing at the Loony Bin comedy club. The late show on Saturday was attended by a friend of mine, and with that friend was Ben Barresi, the son of Oklahoma State School Superintendent. We chatted a little about politics, he introduced me to his fiance, and showed me his Big 12 Championship ring from his days of playing at OU. He was a nice guy, but I got the vibe the he and his fiance didn’t like the fact that I was a Democrat…or devilishly handsome.
Anyway, the very next day I read this article about Oklahoma hemorrhaging superintendents since 2006. “What an interesting coincidence.” I thought. “I meet the State Superintendent’s son, and then read an article about how school superintendents hate their jobs.” Then I watched the Mentalist on DVR.
From NewsOK:
More than 300 public school district superintendents have resigned since 2006, state Education Department records show. Another 218 have retired or been fired during that same time.
The peak came in 2008, when 75 left via resignation. Only 35 resigned in 2006.
Between 2007 and 2011 — with exception of the high-water mark in 2008 — between 49 and 53 superintendents resigned.
Why so many superintendents are leaving depends on who you ask.
Since the Oklahoman didn’t ask me, I would like to list some of my theories on why superintendents are quitting.
10.) Shitty pay
Browsing through this site, I found that the lowest paid superintendent made $56,673 from the Skelly School District. Where is Skelly? I have no F-ing clue. The highest paid superintendent was from – drum roll please – JENKS! That superintendent pulled in $255,116 a year! Seriously, read through the list of their salaries. Those bastards are making six figures. Janet Barresi, after giving herself a raise, is set to make $131,000 a year. Hey teachers who make $30,000 a year… you suck.
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9.) School boards
It really sucks that these superintendents are sometimes held accountable by citizens elected to school boards. C’mon, let these people suckle at the teet of an endless supply of public education money.
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8.) Strict sex offender laws
I’m not implying that any superintendents are sex offenders, but what recourse would they have if they were found to be a sex offender? Of course they would have to resign.
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7.) Having to deliver bad news
After reading a few online interviews with supers from around the country, when asked what the worst part of their job is, they mentioned “having to deliver bad news.” Yeah, that must suck having to tell a teacher that makes 20% of your salary that they no longer have a job. Supers are like Bain Capital, they get paid a lot of money to be the “bad” guy.
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6.) Ben Barresi threatened to beat them up
Ben actually seemed like a nice guy. Just kidding.
5.) Cyberbullying
Before social media, the only way to get bullied was to be around bullies. But now you can pick on people from the comfort of your own home! I’m sure a lot of these supers quit because they saw the hurtful things teachers posted about them on Twitter.
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4.) Bureaucracy
Perhaps there is nothing these supers can do. Perhaps their hands are tied in the red tape of bureaucracy and they give up. And let’s face it, our kids are getting dumber and their parents don’t care. What is an overpaid cog in the education machine going to do to turn that around?
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3.) Cafeteria food
Ever since that meddling Michelle Obama decided our kids are getting fat, the cafeteria food has gotten worse and worse. I’m sure this played a role in the decision on wether to retire or not.
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2.) Random Pic of Choctaw-native Ashlynn Brooke as a School Girl
I accidentally (seriously!!!) stumbled across this pics while searching through the TLO image archives for the school lunch photo. This place’s photo archive is like an exotic jungle of the damned. Every other pic is either of hot chick, state fair attendee or Cardboard Jim Traber.
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1.) Earned enough to retire
Being a superintendent, even for a few months, pays enough for someone used to a teachers salary to retire.
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My thoughts about superintendents are: They are overpaid. The teachers, principals and counselors have to do all the grunt work, while the superintendents make a six figure salary. A superintendent isn’t going to be able to turn around an underperforming school if that school is filled with parents that don’t give a shit about their children’s education. If you ask me, the problem with the dropout rate and poor performance is because we have a LOT of shitty parents in this country. We should cut superintendent pay and hire more teachers, and pay the teachers more. Also, if a kid wants to dropout, let them. It means more resources for kids that want the opportunity that public education provides.
Random info:
“Skelly was established c.1915 and is located in the northwest part of Adair County approximately 3 miles east of Highway 10 and eleven miles west of Highway 59 on Chewey Road. Skelly serves children Pre-K thru 8th grade. The district lies in three counties: Adair, Cherokee and Delaware and extends southwest eight miles, west three miles, five miles northeast and eight miles to the east of the school. Graduates attend Oaks, Kansas, Watts, Westville and Sequoyah High School.” -from their website
OK superintendent fun facts:
– OK has 532 school districts (top 10 in the USA)
– $51.3 annual salary for all superintendents
– additional perks include – car allowance and retirement accounts
– 37 districtes have under 100 students
– Average salary is $97k + benefits
http://www.joplinglobe.com/statenews/x1290582045/Oklahoma-School-superintendents-collectively-earn-51-3-million-per-year
Should read:
– $51.3 million annual salary for all superintendents
worth mentioning – $51.3M for a total of roughly 650,000 students or about $80/kid per year on average.
I believe (based on direct personal understanding with two people that have been there) that the reason they resign is more due to the surprise elements of the job that are not mentioned prior to acceptance. Stuff like lawsuits and personal threats from parents who demand special treatment.
The issue with all the local “districts” (of which a handful are under 100 students each) is that the parents demand local control of education (with many thinking they can violate federal and state requirements at will with regard to curriculum ). Quite frankly, Barresi has a cat herding job in regards to the admins. She really needs to put her foot down and make the special needs and other federal programs work at the state level. Local administrators are wasting MANY dollars on reinventing the wheel with vendor pressure to spend on whatever programs show up at their doorstep. 30 years experience don’t mean much if they were all spent in the same school teaching the same thing and most admins seem to be woefully unprepared or trained for the job.
Being a daughter of a school superintendent and having taught for a couple of years myself (before realizing that I qualified for food stamps on my teacher salary, and that teaching has little to do with teaching) I have mixed feelings about this article. As it applies to my former superintendent, it is dead on. As it applies to my father, it is inaccurate. However, I think that my father may be one in 532 in regards to being a hard working super. While I was growing up he spent countless hours trying to make his school a better place for students, teachers, and staff. Sadly, he is one of many. I think that most of them (the other 531 in the state) sit in their big offices and try to decide where to go for lunch that day, while laughing at their minions that have to eat in the cafeteria. All in all, good article.
Should say “Sadly, he is one out of many.” Sorry.
The guy who used to be the superintendent at my old school district was recently indicted for embezzlement and bribery at Skiatook.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=14&articleid=20120615_14_0_ATulsa440733
Either people are becoming less stupid or TLO is getting tired.
That’s funny I also heard that that Ben Barresi guy is a really nice guy.
I heard he also enjoys watching local comedians at the loony bin!
indeed he does.
I attended two different schools in my K-12 years. Both were in Atoka county. That right there should say something in itself. Both locations were very top heavy on relatives working in the district, and I mean super had a kid who was a principal or teacher at the school, several cousins and other various relatives. I once heard if you want to really get schools up in arms mention the dreaded “c” word, and no Patrick I don’t mean that one. Consolidation. That usually will raise a bunch of hackles. I mean look at it like this, 77 counties in this state, x amount of school districts in each county, and probably a super for each individual district. Cut Barresi’s pay and eliminate all of the individual supers in the counties, save one per each county. They report to the state super and they are over the districts in the counties. If they are going to have a car allowance, make them earn it by going out to the schools in their respective district and checking on their schools.
What’s a teet?
WOW! Spence you’re a Democrat? I would have guessed all of you at TLO were Republicans.
Wild Bill, I AM a Democrat. But I’m not a very good one.
The only way to be a good democrat is to have your brain removed!
I remember back when they voted to eliminate the County Superintendent of Schools. At the time, I thought, “What a stupid idea. Instead of eliminating the super of DE-pendant schools, the question ought to be making them the super of INDE-pendant schools. One per county. But that, of course, is not what happened. It is, however, still a good idea.
I also think every super and ALL other administrators should be required by law to eat whatever the students are eating EVERY DAY. If there was a way, they ought to make the board members partake in some of it, too.
This article surprised me coming from you. I’m glad your cynicism was directed in the right direction here. I taught in an Oklahoma high school a few years ago and made about $2,025 a month. That blows for a single person. I moved to Texas (like tons of other teachers from this state do) and made exactly $20k more a year than I did when I lived here and taught. Not saying that everything is better in Texas, but they don’t have near as many supers as OK does, and (gasp!) their teachers make more. Not only do superintendents have no idea what the hell goes on in the classroom most of the time, but they continue wasting money that could be used to pay teachers, improve schools (in many aspects), and use on the students to re-vamp the state tests (which are a joke). Ridiculous. So, needless to say, I am part of the statistic that over 50% of teachers leave the profession before or at the 5 year mark. I moved back to this great state and didn’t even consider going back into education because after my 5 years of teaching, I know just how f-ed up the system really is. The higher-ups get paid while everyone else has to do the grunt-work like someone mentioned in an above post. I say good luck to those trying to change the system and improve the quality of the supers…it’ll be a cold day in hell.
I would like an article on why Supers keep their job. I know, so they can employ their wife and children and their spouses and cater to their every desire, while the rest of the school does without and does all the work. YES! it happens!