How much is your favorite principal making?
It’s possible to find out: An online tool offers a look at the paychecks brought home by staff, educators and leadership at Chicago Public Schools.
The Better Government Association just redesigned and updated its public salaries database to provide 2017 numbers for more than 500,000 public workers across Illinois, including at local school districts.
The database shows that last year the Chicago school district spent $2 billion on 49,000 employees who made a median salary of $46,124.
Chicago schools’ highest spending department was the Office of Diverse Learner Supports and Services, which runs the special education program.
The database includes salaries as well as overtime, bonuses, benefits and other forms of extra pay. The Chicago Teachers Union contract lists a base salary of about $51,000 for new teachers, with a pension pickup of $3,546 for a total of $54,199 in compensation.
In 2017, the list of individual earners was topped by Denise Joyce Little, who made$325,999 in total compensation, according to the Better Government Association. She retired in August of that year as senior advisor to former district CEO Forrest Claypool, after 40 years of service at the district, and began receiving payments from a more than $140,000 pension.
The second-highest earner was Parkside Community Academy teacher Sharon Stingley, who made $283,579, and Network 5 schools chief Wanda Juareze Washington, with $246,892. In fourth place was now-disgraced district CEO Forrest Claypool, who made $246,154.
Claypool’s successor Janice Jackson has since gotten a raise to go with her promotion, but in 2017 she had the seventh-highest salary with $206,769.
The database lets users explore the distribution of salaries within an agency like the school district, compare salaries in the same department, and compare the payroll of one government agency to another, among other features.
The association compiled the information with help from DataMade, a Chicago-based civic technology company.