FREDERICK, Md. – A school district’s payroll is often a good indicator of its priorities.

A large part of the Frederick County, Maryland school district’s operating budget – nearly 87 percent – is spent on employee salaries and benefits, the Frederick News-Post reported.

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But teachers apparently have not seen what many would consider to be a fair share of that money.

“School district data obtained through a Maryland Public Information Act request, and information from the union, show that Frederick County offers the state’s lowest starting salary for new teachers with a bachelor’s degree,” the News-Post reported.

“Generally, Frederick County teacher salaries rank low in Maryland, even with a master’s degree and other graduate-level training. Frederick County teachers rarely earn more than the state average until they’re in the classroom more than 25 years.”

As a result, it’s hard to recruit the best new teachers, and many veteran teachers leave, according to a news report.

“Teachers have publicly cited stagnating salaries as a reason for leaving Frederick County,” the newspaper reported. “In 2014-15, 31 teachers left for other school districts in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.”

Meanwhile, the school district’s administrators have not suffered from the same type of compensation issues.

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In fiscal 2016-17, 264 Frederick County administrators were paid $28,086,149.50 in straight salary, for an average of $106,386.93 per employee. That does not include the considerable amount that the district pays the employee in benefits.

A total of 153 of those administrators made base salaries of at least $100,000. And the top 11 executives in the district all made more than $150,000 in base salary.

They were Superintendent Theresa Alban ($211,641), Chief Operating Officer Raymond Barnes ($169,259), Chief of Staff/Legal Counsel Jamie Cannon ($163,539), Chief Financial Officer Leslie Pellegrino ($163,539), Executive Director Tracey Lucas ($162,965), Executive Director Keith Harris ($162,965), Executive Director Paula Lawton ($162,965), Director Thomas Saunders ($162,393), Director Mark Pritts ($157,412), Deputy Superintendent Michael Markoe ($153,210), and Director George Seaton ($151,603).

Those 11 school administrators made a combined base salary of nearly $2 million – $1,821,491.

School officials may cite the district’s large budget deficits – around $18 million and $19 million in the two most recent fiscal years, according to the News-Post – when asked about low teacher salaries.

That may be a convenient excuse, but if money’s so tight, how could the district afford to invest so much money in a handful of top administrators?