PENSACOLA, Florida – A published article from April 2016, discussed the necessity for administrators in the Escambia County, Florida school district to “penny pinch” to make ends meet.

The story went on to say that the district had been forced to eliminate a physical education specialist position, so there would be enough  money to create an athletic director position.

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The story said the district would have to pay the new athletic director about $20,000 less than what the retired physical education specialist was making.

Superintendent Malcolm Thomas explained  that 78 percent of the district’s budget is spent on salaries and benefits, so there was a need to closely control the payroll.

“We’re being very frugal,” Thomas was quoted as saying.

So the Escambia district was quibbling over $20,000 for the salary of an athletic director, while at the same time paying big bucks to dozens of administrators.

In fiscal 2016-17, 115 Escambia County school administrators – assistant superintendents all the way down to assistant principals – were paid a total of $13,960,019 in base salary, for an average of $121,391.

Just to compare, the average base teacher salary in the district is about $43,000, according to teachersalaryinfo.com.

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That same group of administrators received $3,624,566 in benefits, for an average of $31,517.

That brought the average compensation (not counting pension contributions) for those 115 Escambia administrators to $152,908 for 2016-17.

Sixteen of those administrators made more than $100,000 in base salary alone. Another 33 made more than $90,000 in base salary.

A total of 87 made more than $100,000 per year in combined salary and benefits.

The deputy superintendent was paid a base salary of $140,080.00 and benefits worth $36,152.50, for a total compensation package of  $176,232.50.

The assistant superintendent for human resources made a base salary of $127,809 and received benefits worth $40,214.64, for a total compensation package of $168,023.64.

The assistant superintendent for operations made a base salary of $121,068 and received benefits worth $27,673.35, bringing the total compensation to $148,741.35.

The district did not provide compensation information for Superintendent Thomas.

Out of all of that money spent on administrators, are we really supposed to believe that the school couldn’t squeeze out an extra $20,000, so the athletic director could have made as much as the former physical education specialist?