BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. – In November, word came through local media that the Blue Springs, Missouri school district was concerned about possible state budget cuts, and had already been in the process of financial belt-tightening.

The news story, posted by Examiner.net, noted that one cost-saving measure involved labor costs.

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“This year the district did not raise the salary schedule, meaning hundreds of employees at the top end of their scale did not get raises … The district has cut staff expenditures by $3.5 million in the last two years.”

Blue Springs has a reputation for producing good academic results, so some readers probably regretted the fact that many experienced teachers at the top of their salary range wouldn’t get a raise, at least for a while.

Those readers need not worry too much about the teachers. They do pretty well, according to payroll information provided by the district through a public information request.

In 2015-16, the 961 Blue Springs teachers were paid a collective $62,994,981 in base salary, for an average of $62,551.

The school district also paid a combined $10,047,699 in retirement benefits on behalf of the teachers, for an average of $10,455 per teacher. They also received a total of $5,431,425 in regular benefits, including medical insurance, which averaged out to $5,651 per teacher.

That means the average compensation package for Blue Springs teachers totaled at least $78,657 — $16,106 more than the average base salary.

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It may be useful to break that average compensation down to daily and hourly rates.

The district said that the length of the school year is 174 days, but was not specific about the number of days that teachers work, so we will round it up to 180. The districts said the school day is six hours long, so in terms of teacher work time, we will round it up to seven.

Using those figures, the average compensation breaks down to $436 per day and about $54 per hour. Not bad at all.

The district’s superintendent, Jim Finley, also did very well in 2015-16, particularly in the area of retirement benefits.

His base salary and benefits came to a total of $197,930 (the district did not separate the two). The district also paid a whopping $71,570 in retirement benefits on his behalf, bringing his total salary and benefit compensation to at least $269,500.