Dearest Reader,
Step three carries us from the trends of the previous two installments to the individuals standing behind the payroll figures themselves. For numbers, however illuminating, are only half the tale until one meets the names attached to them.
Grand Haven Area Public Schools reported forty-two employees with Medicare wages exceeding $100,000 in Tax Year 2025. Combined, this select company received approximately $7.87 million in total compensation.
At the very top of the central-office ledger, Dear Reader:
The Superintendent received $330,395 in total compensation.
The Assistant Superintendent received $301,312.
And the district's three Executive Directors received $249,686, $233,326, and $219,631 respectively.
Do recall, if you will, what this Author uncovered in our first two steps together: a pupil count that declined 17 percent over the decade, an average teacher salary that failed to keep pace with inflation, and district-level administrative staffing that more than doubled.
None of these figures, standing alone, tells us whether a given salary is "too much," or whether a particular position is, strictly speaking, necessary.
That, Dear Reader, is not Lady Budgetdown's office to hold.
This Author's office is simpler, and rather more modest: to lay the receipts upon the table, in full view, so that the taxpayers footing the bill may study the whole picture and draw their own conclusions.
And we are, I assure you, not yet finished with Grand Haven.
With receipts and respect.
Lady Budgetdown
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