September 4, 2025

Compensatory Education Funding

Superintendent Keith Kottke of Springfield has provided a thoughtful analysis of how direct certification and its connection to Compensatory Revenue affect school districts across Minnesota. His work offers valuable insights and is well worth reading. You can access the document here. Superintendent Kottke shared this resource with members of the Compensatory Revenue Task Force.

The first meeting of the Task Force was held yesterday, September 3.  The appointees of the task force are as follows:

1. Zena Stenvik - Superintendent Columbia Heights

2. Matt Grose - Superintendent Grand Rapids

3. Kent Pekel - Superintendent Rochester

4. Ibrahima Diop - CFO Minneapolis

5. Darius Husain - Executive Director - Face to Face Academy

6. Tiffany Gustin - Director of Management and Insurance Trust Services- MSBA

7. Matt Shaver - Senior Policy Director Ed Allies

8. Leah Gardner - Policy Director Hunger Solutions

9. Janey Atchison - Teacher/Researcher

10. Andrea Cecconi - Education Minnesota Research and Negotiations Specialist

11. House appointee: Earl V. Athman

12. House appointee: Representative Sandra Feist

13. Senate appointee: Senator Doron Clark 

14. Senate appointee: Dr. Chris Mills - Superintendent Thief River Falls Public Schools

Member emails to KSTP Re: Superintendent Salaries Report

Many of you contacted me following the interview that both Superintendent John Magas of Duluth and I provided to KSTP regarding superintendent salaries. I thought you might like to read two emails sent by our colleagues to the reporter Ryan Raiche of KSTP Channel 5 and shared here with their permission:

Sent by Donna Roper of St. Cloud Schools, using a personal email address and not representing the views of the school district-

“We’re Shortchanging the Leaders Who Shape Our Future”

Your recent “investigation” into superintendent salaries missed the real story. The scandal isn’t that these leaders earn $200,000–$298,00, it’s that we think that’s enough to attract and retain the caliber of leadership our children and our future deserve.  If Minnesota wants to lead the nation in innovation and economic opportunities, it would do well to invest heavily in Education.

CEOs running companies with $300 million budgets average $1.4 million a year, (Heidrick & Struggles – CEO Compensation Survey) nearly five times what our most seasoned superintendents earn.  Are we honestly suggesting that moving software or managing a corporate division requires more skill, stamina, or moral clarity than shepherding thousands of young minds toward productive citizenship? 

Superintendents run massive, complex operations. They oversee thousands of employees, dozens of facilities, multimillion-dollar supply chains, and endless compliance across local, state, and federal levels. And unlike corporate CEOs, they also serve as educational visionaries, political navigators, community healers, crisis managers, and, on far too many days, counselors for the traumas children carry into school.

When a CEO fails, shareholders lose money. When a superintendent fails, we lose something infinitely more precious: a generation’s potential to solve climate change, cure diseases, bridge divides, and imagine futures we cannot yet see. These are not managers of spreadsheets. They are stewards of human possibility.

Most superintendents hold doctorates, specialized credentials, and have dedicated their entire careers to education. Yet they earn less than many mid-level managers in corporate America, while enduring political attacks, 24/7 scrutiny, and the shortest average tenure of any top executive position, just three to four years. That revolving door guarantees instability, erodes long-term planning, and punishes innovation.

By underpaying our educational leaders, we send a blunt message: that preparing children to be critical thinkers, ethical leaders, and innovative problem-solvers matters less than delivering quarterly profits. We’re pushing our brightest minds into boardrooms and away from classrooms, where their leadership could shape the very fabric of society.  Positioning education in the age of AI will become even more important.

If we genuinely believe education shapes our future, if we want schools led by visionaries capable of inspiring educators and young people to center new ways of learning in order to prioritize tackling humanity’s greatest challenges, shouldn’t we compensate these leaders as if our future depends on them? Because it does. I say this not as an outsider speculating, but as someone who has worked for ten superintendents over three decades. I have seen promising initiatives stall, and I know firsthand that underinvestment in leadership comes at a cost our children cannot afford.

The next time you see a superintendent’s salary, don’t ask if it’s too high.  Ask if it’s nearly enough to attract leaders worthy of shaping the minds who will inherit the world.

Sent by Holly Ward of Dawson-Boyd Public Schools with Board Chair Approval-

“Subject: A Fuller Story on Superintendent Leadership”

Dear Mr. Raiche,

Thank you for shining a light on superintendent contracts in Minnesota. Transparency matters, and your piece reminds us how much interest there is in how schools are led. I hope your reporting can also open the door to a larger conversation: What does it mean to lead a school district, and why does it matter for Minnesota’s future?

Superintendents, whether in the metro or in rural communities, guide organizations that are complex and deeply human. We manage budgets, oversee compliance, support staff, and engage with communities. At the core of this work is one thing: children. Every choice, from how resources are allocated to how crises are handled, shapes the opportunities available to students and their vision of what is possible for their lives.

In Greater Minnesota, the story carries unique dimensions. Rural superintendents often wear many hats. We may serve as the human resources director, transportation coordinator, communications lead, and sometimes even the extra set of hands setting up for a school concert. We do this out of pride in the schools that serve as the heart of our towns. Our graduates go on to become business owners, farmers, nurses, teachers, and community leaders who sustain both rural life and the state as a whole.

Metro superintendents face different challenges, leading large, diverse districts with thousands of employees and students. Their scale is vast. Rural leadership is broad. Both roles require skill, vision, and an unwavering focus on the children we serve.

What your viewers may not know is that superintendent salaries span a wide range across Minnesota. Some leaders in our largest districts earn close to $300,000. Many in rural communities earn far less, often while carrying a wide set of responsibilities. The more important question is not “What do superintendents earn?” but “How do we ensure that every district, large or small, can attract and keep leaders who make schools stronger for children?”

The future of Minnesota depends on the young people sitting in classrooms today. They will be the innovators, caregivers, and citizens who shape our communities and our democracy. Strong leadership in schools does not guarantee success, but weak or unstable leadership almost always comes at a cost to students.

I encourage Channel 5 to continue exploring this story with an eye toward the humanity at its center. How do strong leaders, in both metro and rural settings, make a difference for children? What happens in a community when leadership is unstable? And how can Minnesota ensure every child, regardless of zip code, has the steady guidance of a superintendent committed to their future?

Thank you for beginning the conversation. I hope you will consider expanding it, because our children’s future, and Minnesota’s future, depend on it.

Sincerely,
Holly Ward
Superintendent, Dawson-Boyd Public Schools

Leadership Matters!

“The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.” -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.