Salary Figures - Saginaw ISD, Bay-Arenac ISD and Midland County ESA

[Shadowninja]

LADY BUDGETDOWN OPENS THREE MORE LEDGERS:

Well, well, well.

The ledger has made its way back to Mid-Michigan.

This time I put Saginaw ISD, Bay-Arenac ISD and Midland County ESA side by side.

And before we begin our regularly scheduled trip through the comment section, allow me to address a few things in advance.

Yes, these are the salary figures reported by the ISDs themselves.

No, posting them is not an attack on administrators.

No, I am not suggesting these jobs are easy.

And no, Lady Budgetdown has not personally decided what anyone "deserves" to make.

I simply opened three public ledgers and put them next to each other.

And wouldn't you know it?

They had things to say.

Saginaw ISD reports its superintendent salary figure at $297,000.

Midland County ESA reports $190,000.

Bay-Arenac ISD reports $174,639.

But we don't stop at the superintendent's office around here.

For Saginaw ISD, the additional leadership positions shown are:

Deputy Superintendent — $196,100
Executive Director of Early Childhood — $150,497
Executive Director of Instruction — $145,642

For Bay-Arenac ISD:

Director – Instructional Services — $144,588
Director – Early Childhood — $144,455
Director – Finance — $139,897

And for Midland County ESA:
Director of Finance — $141,449
Director of Special Education — $128,750
Director of Human Resources — $104,924

Now let's give those numbers some company.

Using Michigan's 2024–25 Bulletin 1014 and rounding pupil FTE to the nearest whole pupil:

Saginaw ISD — 25,588
Bay-Arenac ISD — 12,211
Midland County ESA — 11,194

Three neighboring intermediate school organizations.

Three leadership structures.

Three very different sets of salary figures.

And three very different pupil populations.

Now comes the part where Lady Budgetdown puts on her tiny reading glasses and repeats the disclaimer for those already typing furiously.

I am deliberately not calling every number on this graphic a contractual "base salary."

Why?

Because these entities do not necessarily define and report salary information in precisely the same way.

So I did not attempt to make the records say something they don't.

I used the salary figure each ISD/ESA itself reported and labeled it accordingly.

Same approach with pupil counts. Rather than pull three different enrollment descriptions from three different websites, I used the same MDE Bulletin 1014 source for all three.

Boring?

Absolutely.

But boring methodology makes for much more interesting comparisons.

And this one certainly gives taxpayers something to look at.

Does a higher salary automatically mean someone is overpaid?

No.

Does a lower salary automatically mean someone is underpaid?

Also no.

Do these administrators work difficult jobs carrying substantial responsibilities?

I'm quite certain they do.

None of those things prevent the public from looking at what three neighboring public entities report spending at the top and asking questions about the differences.

That isn't an attack.

That's what transparency is for.

Lady Budgetdown doesn't decide what these positions should cost.

She just keeps putting the receipts on the table.

You get to decide what you think of them.

With receipts and respect. 🪶

— Lady Budgetdown