Readers were curious.

After Lady Budgetdown posted the Wayne County superintendent compensation figures, more than a few eyes wandered back to one particular entry:

River Rouge School District.

Approximately 2,755 pupils.

Superintendent W-2 Medicare wages: $483,314.38.

Total compensation: $705,172.83.

And the question was rather predictable:

How does the superintendent of a relatively small district arrive at compensation like that?

Well......

Lady Budgetdown picked up the quill and followed the ledger backward. 🪶

And this story did not begin in 2024–25.

📜 2012 - Derrick Coleman becomes superintendent of River Rouge.

Then comes the rather important chapter.

📜 2017 - Detroit comes calling.

Coleman became one of three finalists to become superintendent of Detroit Public Schools Community District.

River Rouge apparently had no desire to see its superintendent pack his bags for the considerably larger district. So the board moved to retain him.

And this is where the ledger becomes interesting.

📜 2017 - THE RETENTION CONTRACT

River Rouge entered into a long-term agreement with Coleman extending through June 30, 2024.

His salary for 2016–17 was $162,500.

From there, the contract provided an automatic 4% increase for each additional year. But, dear readers, the annual salary was merely the beginning.

The contract also contained layers of additional compensation:

🪶 $10,000 annual retention bonus

🪶 Up to $4,000 for an audit-performance bonus

🪶 Up to $10,000 for an enrollment bonus

🪶 Another $10,000 priority-school bonus

🪶 $800 per month vehicle stipend

🪶 Potential vacation-day cash-outs

🪶 A 15% contribution to a 403(b)

🪶 Another 15% contribution to a 457 plan

🪶 And provisions involving reimbursement of certain employee retirement contributions.

One might say the compensation did not simply receive a raise.

It acquired layers. Quite a few layers.

📜 AND THE NUMBERS KEPT CLIMBING.

The historical payroll records we located show the upward progression:

2022 - approximately $233,957
2023 - approximately $248,296
2024 - approximately $283,589
2025 - approximately $379,023

Those historical payroll figures are not necessarily calculated using precisely the same measure as River Rouge's current W-2 Medicare-wage disclosure, so Lady Budgetdown will not pretend they can simply be added together or compared dollar-for-dollar.

They do, however, show the direction the ledger traveled.

📜 JUNE 30, 2024

The retention contract we were able to locate expired. Coleman remained superintendent. But here the public trail develops a rather inconvenient blank page.

I have not been able to locate the successor employment contract governing his current compensation.

And Lady Budgetdown does not write numbers into blank spaces merely because they would make the story tidier.

So we arrive at what River Rouge itself reports today.

📜 2024–25

W-2 Medicare wages:
$483,314.38

Total compensation:
$705,172.83.

That $705,172.83 is not Lady Budgetdown's estimate.

It isn't a calculation assembled from newspaper articles.

It is the total compensation figure printed on River Rouge School District's own employee compensation report.

And that, dear readers, is how following one unusually large number backward turned into an entirely different story.

A superintendent nearly leaves for Detroit.

A district decides it wants to keep him.

A long-term retention contract follows.

Automatic increases and numerous additional compensation provisions are layered into that agreement.

Years pass.

And today the district reports $705,172.83 in total superintendent compensation.

There is still one missing page in this particular ledger: the contract governing the period after June 30, 2024.

Until that receipt appears, Lady Budgetdown will not pretend to know precisely how the current agreement is structured.

But everything before it?

Well.

The ledger has quite a memory. 👑📖🪶

With receipts and respect.

Lady Budgetdown

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