LADY BUDGETDOWN: SAGINAW ISD
TWO COMPENSATION LADDERS AND, AS IT TURNS OUT, TWO TEACHER SCHEDULES
Dear readers, this one started with a breadcrumb.
A reader asked Lady Budgetdown to take a closer look at compensation inside Saginaw ISD.
So I opened the district's administrative records.
Then I opened the new SIFT collective bargaining agreement.
And I started putting the two ladders next to each other.
The administrative side was fairly straightforward.
SISD's 2024–25 Annual Web Report lists:
Superintendent — $297,000
Deputy Superintendents — approximately $171,000–$196,000
Executive Directors — approximately $134,000–$150,000
Directors — approximately $103,000–$117,000
And another administrative/non-bargaining position we examined, Chief of Staff/Communications, was reported at $97,930 in 2025 payroll data.
Different positions. Different responsibilities. Different work calendars. That matters.
But then I crossed over to the teacher side of the ledger. And this is where a reader handed me another breadcrumb before I published.
There isn't just one SIFT teacher salary schedule.
There are TWO.
📜 SCHEDULE A — 2026–27
BA begins at $50,000.
At Step 14:
BA — $82,500
MA — $94,000
MA+30 — $99,000
MA/LIC — $101,500
Schedule A includes positions specifically identified in the contract, including Special Education Teachers, Teacher Consultants, Behavior Consultants, Early On Teachers, Vocational Consultants and several other professional and licensed classifications.
But there is also:
📜 SCHEDULE B — 2026–27
BA begins at $42,500.
At Step 14:
BA — $70,125
MA — $79,900
MA+30 — $84,150
The agreement specifically identifies Early College Teachers, Juvenile Detention Center Teachers and certain Naturalists under Schedule B.
And that distinction matters.
A BA employee at the top of Schedule A earns $82,500.
A BA employee at the top of Schedule B earns $70,125.
That's a $12,375 difference inside the teacher contract itself.
At MA+30, the difference grows to $14,850.
So I kept reading. Because salary isn't the entire ledger either.
📜 LEAVE
SIFT employees receive 15 leave days, with up to three of those 15 available for personal business.
Covered administrative employees receive 15 sick days plus separately allocated personal-business days. Directors and Executive Directors are listed with six personal-business days.
📜 VACATION
The SIFT agreement does not establish a separate vacation bank.
Covered administrative employees receive between 15 and 25 vacation days depending upon position, with Directors and Executive Directors receiving 25.
There are provisions for carryover and, under specified circumstances, payout of unused vacation.
But here's an important receipt to put right beside that one:
Many of those key administrative positions are 261-day jobs.
SIFT assignments operate on substantially shorter contractual calendars depending upon position.
Those aren't interchangeable working arrangements, and I'm not going to pretend they are.
📜 PROFESSIONAL TRAVEL AND EXPENSES
SIFT employees can receive the IRS mileage rate for work-connected travel and reimbursement for necessary, previously approved job expenses.
The administrative handbook expressly provides for approved professional activities that can include travel, food, lodging, conference-registration fees, supplies and materials.
It also provides for approved local, state and national professional association memberships.
And then I reached the line that may interest me the most.
📜 TUITION REIMBURSEMENT
Education matters quite a bit on these salary schedules.
Just look at the columns:
BA.
MA.
MA+30.
Additional education can literally determine which column you're standing in.
Under the new SIFT agreement, qualifying graduate coursework can be reimbursed at up to $325 per credit hour for a maximum of SIX credits per year.
Maximum ordinary annual reimbursement:
$1,950.
Under the administrative handbook?
Same $325 per credit hour.
But up to EIGHTEEN credits per year.
Maximum:
$5,850.
Same employer.
Same reimbursement rate per credit.
Three times the reimbursable credits.
Three times the potential annual tuition assistance.
And THAT brings me back to the original breadcrumb.
I'm not asking whether administrators and teachers perform the same jobs.
They don't.
I'm not pretending a 261-day administrative contract is equivalent to a teacher calendar.
It isn't.
And I'm certainly not saying teachers receive no additional benefits. They do.
I'm asking something much narrower.
When additional education is one of the ways educators climb their own compensation ladder...
Why does the contract provide them assistance for six credits a year while the administrative handbook provides assistance for eighteen?
And when we talk about investing in education, how much of that investment is reaching the people whose compensation ladder actually requires them to keep earning those credentials?
There is one more thing worth mentioning.
The first version of my research showed Schedule A.
A reader contacted me and said:
Don't forget Schedule B.
So I went back to the contract.
She was right that another schedule belonged in the ledger.
That's why you're seeing both.
Receipts aren't very useful if I only keep the convenient ones.
The administrative ladder belongs here.
Schedule A belongs here.
Schedule B belongs here.
The differences belong here.
And so does the context.
I put all of them on the same piece of parchment.
You decide what they say.
👑 Lady Budgetdown
With receipts & respect.
Sources: Saginaw ISD Annual Web Report 2024–25; Saginaw ISD Administration/Non-Bargaining Staff Handbook 2025–26; SIFT Collective Bargaining Agreement 2026–29; Mackinac Center public payroll data. Reporting periods differ. Administrative-handbook provisions apply to covered administrative/non-bargaining employees; the handbook excludes the Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent unless incorporated into their individual employment contracts.
#LadyBudgetdown #SaginawISD #TeacherPay #SchoolFinance #PublicEducation #FollowTheMoney #FollowTheLedger #Transparency #EducationFunding #WithReceiptsAndRespect