Some superintendents in struggling Oklahoma school districts are getting hefty raises, even as the schools in their districts are scrambling to figure out how to pay their bills.
Some school districts in Oklahoma have been hit so hard by the state’s budget shortfall that they’ve gone to four-day school weeks. Yet, as KWTV reports, many of the superintendents in those very same districts are receiving big raises. For example, the small hamlet of Atoka has fewer than 1,000 students. Yet in one year alone, the district superintendent received a raise of $40,000.
State Sen. Rob Standridge, a Republican in Norman, said this is not a frugal use of state funds.
In response, the president of the Oklahoma Association of School Administrators said the raises in small districts are likely due to superintendents taking on more work as teachers and administrators are laid off.
Standridge has called for a state audit to get “the full picture of where every penny is going.”
