MILWAUKEE – It’s hardly a secret that Milwaukee Public Schools dug a deep financial hole over the years with overgenerous benefit packages for employees.

As far back as 2010, Milwaukee City Alderman Bob Donovan pointed out that the district was spending 74 cents on employee benefits for every dollar in salary.

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The average teacher had benefits worth more than $40,000 per year, pushing total compensation packages for many teachers above $100,000.

Donovan called the situation “unsustainable and overly generous,” and he was absolutely correct.

The problem has apparently been addressed to a significant degree. The implementation of Act 10, Wisconsin’s law curbing the power of public employee labor unions, has allowed MPS administrators to dramatically reduce labor costs by more than $100 million over the past few years, according to several sources.

But even after all of the cutbacks, it’s impossible to consider the issue resolved. The fact is that the district still spends a great deal of money on extra perks for employees.

In the 2013-14 school year, for instance, an amazing total of 1,272 MPS employees had salary and benefit packages worth more than $100,000.

By comparison, the Seattle school district had only 313 employees receiving compensation packages worth at least $100,000 in 2014-15. The San Francisco district had 769 that year.

All 1,272 of those MPS employees received five-figure benefit packages. The cost of benefits for individuals ranged between $23,000 and $90,000.

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The total spent on their salaries was $105 million while the total spent on benefits was nearly half of that — $47.2 million.

Considering that MPS entered the current school year trying to fill a $29 million budget deficit, it’s fair to ask whether way too much is still being spent on benefits.

All types of employees prospered from the district’s generosity in 2013-14.

More than half of the employees in the “six-figure club” – 744 – were teachers. While they made out well, they were certainly not clustered at the top of the compensation chart. Out of all those teachers, only two made the list of the top 200 compensation packages in the district.

The rest of the top 200 were school district administrators, with the vast majority having the title of central office administrator, principal or assistant principal.

Compensation for the top 10 on the list was staggering. The top earner that year was Superintendent Gregory Thornton, who made $265,000 in straight salary and $78,847 in benefits for a grand total of $343,847.

Then there were Central Office Administrator Lynne Sobczak ($144,925, $84,833, $229,258), Principal Tonya Adair ($120,376, $92,868, $213,244), Principal Stanley McWilliams ($120,376, $90,876, $211,252), Central Office Administrator Margaret Barrett ($132,162, $73,947, $206,109) and Principal Maurice Turner ($125,964, $72,724, $198,688).

The rest were Principal Darrell Williams ($125,964, $72,474, $198,438), Principal Lonnie Anderson ($113,390, $84,879, $198,269), Central Office Administrator Katrice Cotton ($125,964, $72,204, $198,168) and Principal Matthew Boswell ($125,964, $71,993, $197,957).

They made a combined $1.4 million in straight salary and $795,145 in benefits in 2013-14, for a total of $2.1 million.

With so many educators making very good money, one might assume that MPS students are getting a great education.

But that’s apparently not the case. In 2013-14 the district received an overall score of 51.1 on a scale of 100 from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. That means the school district “failed to meet expectations.”

So maybe, just maybe, some of those 1,272 employees are just a bit overpaid?