Dearest readers, your Lady has now reached the portion of the Grand Rapids ledger where the chairs come with price tags. 🪶
And this is no small guest list.
Grand Rapids Public Schools' 2025 Top Wage Earners report contains 77 employees with W-2 Medicare Wages greater than $100,000. Together, those 77 employees account for $9.72 million in Medicare Wages alone.
But Medicare Wages are only one column in this particular ledger.
GRPS also reports FICA/Medicare tax, retirement, tax-sheltered annuities, insurance, and auto/mileage allowances. When your Lady adds those six district-reported components together, the combined compensation for the 77 employees comes to:
💰 $14,563,872.41
That is your Lady's arithmetic using the district's own reported numbers, not a "total compensation" figure supplied by GRPS.
And sitting at the head of the table?
👑 Superintendent
Medicare Wages: $314,014.82
Calculated compensation: $467,740.36
But one does not build a central office with a single chair.
The report also includes a Chief of Staff, Deputy Superintendent, Chief Financial Officer, two Chief Instructional Area Quad Leaders, an Assistant Superintendent, and three Executive Directors among its $100,000+ earners. It also contains principals, directors, assistant principals, teachers and other employees, so your Lady will not pretend all 77 belong to Central Office. They plainly do not.
Still, this becomes particularly interesting when placed beside the ledger we opened yesterday.
Over the decade, GRPS enrollment declined 21.3%.
Total administrators declined 20.8%.
Yet beneath that total, District/Central Office administrators increased 45.9%, while School/Building administrators decreased 45.0%.
And now we have begun putting price tags on the chairs.
That does not tell us whether those positions are necessary, unnecessary, expensive, inexpensive, wise or unwise.
It tells us where to look next.
And dearest readers, your Lady has learned never to accuse the chandelier simply because the electric bill is high.
First, we inspect the wiring. 👑🪶
The ledger remains open.
#LadyBudgetdown #GrandRapidsPublicSchools #MichiganSchools #SchoolFinance #Transparency #FollowTheMoney #WithReceiptsAndRespect