RICHMOND, Va. – It’s good to be an administrator in the Richmond, Virginia school district.

But it’s not so great for a lot of the students.

In the 2012-13 school year, the Richmond district had 25 employees – all at the administrative level – making salaries of at least $100,000.

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The superintendent at the time, Yvonne Brandon, was at the top of the list with a very nice $175,100 annual income.

Also on that list were lots of officials whose job it is to help create a quality school district where students can excel. They included the chief operating officer ($128,750), the executive director of elementary education ($117,097), a chief academic officer ($109,005), a director of professional development ($115,084) and a turnaround project manager ($116,750).

Ten building principals were also on the Top 25 list.

Collectively those 25 employees, who pretty much run the district, earned $2.7 million in 2012-13.

For that type of investment, the taxpayers of Richmond should be able to expect some pretty good results. But that hasn’t been the case at all.

In state tests in 2013-14, Richmond students fared poorly compared to the rest of the state.

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In English, 53 percent of Richmond students passed, compared to 74 percent statewide. In math 55 percent of Richmond students passed, compared to 74 percent statewide. That trend continued in every category – writing (56/75), History (70/84) and science (66/80).

In the private sector, bottom line results like that could get an entire management team fired. But that sort of accountability doesn’t seem to exist in the public sector, even in public schools, where the critical work of preparing children for the future is supposed to be done.

To make matters worse, a local television news investigation in 2013 revealed that the Richmond district had a 73 percent graduation rate, which ranked last out of 131 school districts, or “divisions” as they are called in Virginia.

Another media report, in early 2014, detailed dilapidated and unsanitary conditions in many of the school district’s buildings.

The school board vice president took a tour of one local middle school, where a bad roof was allowing wet chunks of tar to fall into classrooms and hallways, and told a reporter “I wanted to leave the room and throw up.”

None of the above is a very good review for the district’s highly paid administrative team.

So what did the school board do to address the problem?

It hired a new superintendent, Dr. Dana Bedden, just over a year ago, at an even higher salary than the previous superintendent – a whopping $225,000 per year.

The new president of the school board told a reporter that $175,000 per year was not enough to attract the type of superintendent the board wanted.

In addition to the salary, Bedden was told he could earn a $22,500 bonus if he was successful in reducing the district’s dropout rate, improving student test scores and improving the overall academic performance of students.

Perhaps if the school board started directing more resources toward students and facilities, and less in the big shots who have not done a very good job, the situation might actually change for the better in the Richmond district.