👑 TRAVERSE CITY AREA PUBLIC SCHOOLS: STEP 3: THE $100,000+ LIST
The first two trips through the TCAPS ledger looked at money and staffing.
Now it's time to look at compensation.
Traverse City Area Public Schools publishes an employee compensation report based on actual 2025 W-2 information. I pulled the employees whose Salary/Medicare Wages were $100,000 or more.
There are 40 employees on that list.
💰 Combined Salary/Medicare Wages:
$4,872,100.75
💰 Combined Total Compensation:
$7,431,276.30
That's a difference of approximately $2.56 million, reflecting items such as retirement, FICA and health-related costs included in the district's total-compensation figures.
A few examples from the report:
👑 Superintendent
$276,517.58 Salary/Medicare Wages
$399,691.45 Total Compensation
⚖️ Associate Superintendent — Labor Relations & Legal Services
$194,948.54 Salary/Medicare Wages
$290,771.28 Total Compensation
💼 Assistant Superintendent — Finance & Operations
$177,513.79 Salary/Medicare Wages
$244,956.02 Total Compensation
📚 Chief Academic Officer — Elementary
$167,828.95 Salary/Medicare Wages
$254,625.80 Total Compensation
🎓 Chief Academic Officer — Secondary
$161,207.14 Salary/Medicare Wages
$246,802.47 Total Compensation
Now, a very important distinction:
"Total compensation" is not the amount deposited into someone's bank account.
It includes employer costs associated with employing that person. That's precisely why I show both numbers rather than pretending they're the same thing.
And the existence of a $100,000+ employee isn't evidence that someone is overpaid, either.
The purpose of this part of the ledger is much simpler:
Who is being compensated at this level, what positions do they hold, and what does the district report as the full cost of that compensation?
Now put Steps 1–3 together.
Over ten years, TCAPS pupil count fell 12.46%.
Average teacher salary increased 20.67%, compared with 35.83% inflation.
Teacher FTE fell 10.51% and paraprofessional FTE fell 22.12%.
Administrative FTE fell just 0.24%.
And now we know that in 2025, TCAPS reported 40 employees with Salary/Medicare Wages of at least $100,000, representing approximately $7.43 million in total compensation.
None of those numbers alone tells the whole story.
Together, though, they tell me which pages of the ledger deserve another look. 🪶
Source: Traverse City Area Public Schools, 2025 Employee Compensation Information, based on actual W-2 information.
With receipts and respect.
#LadyBudgetdown #TraverseCity #TCAPS #MichiganSchools #SchoolFinance #EducationFunding #TheReceipts