Lancaster schools must be more transparent. Buffalo News

[abc123]

there are about 900 total employees of the district when you add it all up. what CEO of a 900 employee company with a $100,000,000 annual budget to manage makes $200,000? who would even want that job in lancaster with a mob after your head for 3 years now?

i understand that many districts turn over superintendents pretty regularly. i have no idea though how much of that is due to performance, or superintendents leaving for other opportunities, or what.

[Lee Chowaniec]

LMAO to hear some posters claim that this is not an election based on pro and anti administration sentiment.

As to Dr. Valley, his salary and benefits are comparative to superintendents of districts of like size and performance, the super’s contributions to proficiency, dedication and experience. It’s all about ‘market value’ and Vallely would have no problem moving on. It would be Lancaster’s loss and would be a shame considering the political nonsense and personal agendas that are taking place this year to make that happen.

[gorja]

Erie county Superintendent pay - 2016-17 http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/n...aterank47.html

1. Williamsville - $227,052
K-12 enrollment - 10,092
Business First ranking - #2 out of 96 districts

2. West Seneca - $194,105,
K-12 enrollment - 6,750
Business First ranking - #33 out of 96 districts

3. Clarence - $193,800
K-12 enrollment - 4,581
Business First ranking - #3 out of 96 districts

4. Orchard Park - $190,922
K-12 enrollment - 4,895
Business First ranking - #4 out of 96 districts

5. Lancaster - $185,657
K-12 enrollment - 5,768
Business First ranking - #8 out of 96 districts

Vallely's salary is within the range of the others considering enrollment and BF ranking, IMHO.

[Neubs24]

Erie county Superintendent pay - 2016-17 http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/n...aterank47.html

1. Williamsville - $227,052
K-12 enrollment - 10,092
Business First ranking - #2 out of 96 districts

2. West Seneca - $194,105,
K-12 enrollment - 6,750
Business First ranking - #33 out of 96 districts

3. Clarence - $193,800
K-12 enrollment - 4,581
Business First ranking - #3 out of 96 districts

4. Orchard Park - $190,922
K-12 enrollment - 4,895
Business First ranking - #4 out of 96 districts

5. Lancaster - $185,657
K-12 enrollment - 5,768
Business First ranking - #8 out of 96 districts

Vallely's salary is within the range of the others considering enrollment and BF ranking, IMHO.

And how many of those have a doctorate, which is a huge factor as well.

[Neubs24]

Really, you are comparing apples to oranges? You did not finish viewing his package-over 200 wake up Neubs24, times have changed, that compensation package he has is pretty amazing.

What "package"? His salary was $185,000 per SeeThroughNY.

[Neubs24]

NOTES

1. All statistics are the latest official figures from the New York State Education Department or the U.S. Census Bureau. Most come from 2014. (Exceptions are enrollment, teachers' ages, teachers' experience levels, teachers' salaries and staffing ratios, which come from 2015, and the superintendent's budgeted salary, which comes from 2016.)

2. Academic and specialized rankings were calculated by Business First. (Click here to see the methodology.)

3. Ranks (out of 431 districts) are shown in parentheses for most statistics. Every rank (for consistency's sake) is from a category's highest number to its lowest number, even if the highest number is considered to be a negative attribute, as in a high poverty rate. (Some ties have been broken by referring to decimal places beyond those that are published here.) A percentile is the percentage of other Upstate districts that a given district outranks in a specific category.

4. Click on any category name below for further explanations and top-to-bottom rankings.


LANCASTER: UPSTATE ACADEMIC RANK

Upstate district rank: 30

Upstate district percentile: 93.26%


LANCASTER: CHANGE IN UPSTATE RANK

2015 Upstate rank: 27

2016 Upstate rank: 30

2015-2016 change: Down 3 places


LANCASTER: UPSTATE SUBJECT RANKS

English: 30 (percentile: 93.26%)

Mathematics: 26 (percentile: 94.19%)

Science: 62 (percentile: 85.81%)

Social studies: 27 (percentile: 93.95%)


LANCASTER: UPSTATE SPECIALIZED RANKS

Achievement index: 145 (percentile: 66.51%)

Cost-effectiveness: 3 (percentile: 99.54%)

Administrative efficiency: 4 (percentile: 99.30%)

Diversity index: 238 (percentile: 44.88%)

Housing options: 75 (percentile: 82.79%)

Socioeconomic climate: 54 (percentile: 87.67%)

Student access: 420 (percentile: 2.56%)

Teacher experience: 173 (percentile: 60.00%)

Teacher pay: 119 (percentile: 72.56%)


LANCASTER: MARKET ACADEMIC RANK

Market: Western New York

Rank in market: 8

Districts in market: 96


LANCASTER: BASIC FACTS

County: Erie

District latitude: 42.91 degrees

District longitude: -78.65 degrees

District land area: 33.64 square miles (rank: 362)

District population (all ages): 40,800 (rank: 21)


Population density: 1,212.70 per square mile (rank: 47)

Residents born in New York: 89.10% (rank: 21)

Residents born in other states: 7.67% (rank: 422)

Residents born in foreign country: 3.23% (rank: 178)


LANCASTER: STUDENTS

K-12 enrollment: 5,768 (rank: 20)

Female students: 49.57% (rank: 152)

Male students: 50.43% (rank: 280)

White students: 93.82% (rank: 194)

Black students: 1.06% (rank: 264)

Hispanic students: 2.22% (rank: 212)

Asian students: 1.06% (rank: 163)

Native American students: 0.33% (rank: 154)

Multiracial students: 1.52% (rank: 192)

Gini-Simpson diversity index: 11.88% (rank: 238)

Children living with both parents: 76.66% (rank: 88)

Economically disadvantaged: 18.07% (rank: 399)

Youth poverty rate: 6.25% (rank: 417)

Disabled students: 14.73% (rank: 150)


LANCASTER: TEACHERS AND STAFF

Teachers: 428 (rank: 25)

Female teachers: 74.07% (rank: 228)

Male teachers: 25.93% (rank: 204)

Teachers with 1-10 years of experience: 21.26% (rank: 343)

Teachers with 11-20 years of experience: 56.31% (rank: 9)

Teachers with 21 or more years of experience: 22.43% (rank: 375)

Pupils per administrator: 230.7 (rank: 28)

Pupils per student-service provider: 157.8 (rank: 37)

Pupils per teacher: 14.0 (rank: 20)

Pupils per teacher's aide: 58.3 (rank: 52)


LANCASTER: SALARIES

Budgeted salary for superintendent: $185,657 (rank: 35)

5th percentile for teachers: $42,586 (rank: 207)

25th percentile for teachers: $50,428 (rank: 207)

50th percentile for teachers: $58,064 (rank: 188)

75th percentile for teachers: $66,150 (rank: 211)

95th percentile for teachers: $92,047 (rank: 40)

Note: Percentiles indicate a salary's position on a district's payroll. A salary at the 25th percentile is larger than 25 percent of all other salaries in the district, but smaller than the remaining 75 percent. (If a district did not report teachers' salaries for the latest year, its most recently reported figures have been substituted.)


LANCASTER: SPENDING

District expenditures: $86,990,651 (rank: 35)

Spending per pupil: $14,640 (rank: 426)

Federal funding: 1.99% (rank: 403)

State funding: 41.17% (rank: 362)

Local funding: 56.84% (rank: 64)

Spending on administration: 1.22% (rank: 408)

Spending on debt service: 5.81% (rank: 377)

Spending on health benefits: 11.35% (rank: 255)

Spending on retirement benefits: 6.20% (rank: 30)

Spending on teachers' salaries: 30.30% (rank: 94)

Spending on transportation: 6.02% (rank: 70)

Note: Percentages for the six spending categories immediately above may not add to 100 percent because additional categories are not shown.


LANCASTER: COMMUNITY

Median household income: $66,600 (rank: 59)

Households with incomes above $100,000: 29.64% (rank: 48)

Median home value: $152,800 (rank: 101)

Homeownership rate: 80.04% (rank: 173)

Homes with eight or more rooms: 25.25% (rank: 156)

Combined wealth ratio: 0.730 (rank: 130)

Median age of residents: 42.1 years (rank: 249)

Adults with high school diplomas: 94.05% (rank: 61)

Adults with bachelor's degrees: 32.02% (rank: 70)

Adults with advanced degrees: 12.59% (rank: 99)

Note: Community statistics are for all persons and households within the school district's boundaries.


LANCASTER: EMPLOYMENT

Workers with management or professional jobs: 40.91% (rank: 66)

Workers with service jobs: 14.28% (rank: 375)

Workers with sales or office jobs: 27.15% (rank: 68)

Workers with construction or maintenance jobs: 6.32% (rank: 376)

Workers with production or transportation jobs: 11.35% (rank: 292)

Note: Community statistics are for all workers who live within the school district's boundaries, regardless of where they work.


LANCASTER: SIMILAR DISTRICTS

1. Baldwinsville (Onondaga County)

2. West Genesee (Onondaga County)

3. Frontier (Erie County)

4. Hamburg (Erie County)

5. Hilton (Monroe County)

6. Ballston Spa (Saratoga County)

7. Scotia-Glenville (Schenectady County)

8. West Seneca (Erie County)

9. Orchard Park (Erie County)

10. Starpoint (Niagara County)

Note: These are the 10 Upstate districts that are most similar to Lancaster when 23 demographic and economic indicators are compared. Academic rankings were not factored into the similarity calculations.

http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/n...901060000.html

[shortstuff]

there are about 900 total employees of the district when you add it all up. what CEO of a 900 employee company with a $100,000,000 annual budget to manage makes $200,000? who would even want that job in lancaster with a mob after your head for 3 years now?

i understand that many districts turn over superintendents pretty regularly. i have no idea though how much of that is due to performance, or superintendents leaving for other opportunities, or what.

I still stand by my position, he is paid hefty and his compensation will exceed the 200k. This is paid for by taxpayers, and it is not just he that runs the district(s).

[Neubs24]

I still stand by my position, he is paid hefty and his compensation will exceed the 200k. This is paid for by taxpayers, and it is not just he that runs the district(s).

Where are you getting the 200k number from??

[gorja]

Where are you getting the 200k number from??

Salary + Benefits

[WNYresident]

Salary + Benefits

Where are you getting the 200k number from??

You have to take "total cost" per position to accurately track the cost of services.

[walking tall]

I still stand by my position, he is paid hefty and his compensation will exceed the 200k. This is paid for by taxpayers, and it is not just he that runs the district(s).

Shortstuff is shortsighted. Dr. V has provided the leadership to get the schools up to top 10 status. He does have help in maintaining that role, but like a good CEO he leads and provides vision and direction. This district should be thankful when it landed Dr. V as its visionary. Ed Myszka was great with fiduciary frugality but Dr. V's vision and leadership provided the impetus for acceleration. If you think he's compensated in all ways too much, love to hear your ideas what you're compensation plan is and the results commensurate with Superintendents benefit package. Sounds like you're little like Ralph Wilson always paying below market value for coaches and expecting a trip to the Super Bowl every year.

[gorja]

So true, Walking Tall. During Vallely's time as head of curriculum and instruction was
when the plan for the district's academic acceleration was created. Everything positive
in our district's academic world evolved from that plan's inception, IMHO.

Vallely is an asset whose compensation is well worth paying.

[Neubs24]

You have to take "total cost" per position to accurately track the cost of services.

None of the supers on SeeThrough have benefits included. Benefits are a normal cost for any employer. to include benefits as part of total salary is twisting the stats to fit your narrative. when I get asked an income question, such as on a loan application, I don't include my benefits in that number, nor do I know the value of my benefits.

Apples to apples (salary to salary), he is in line with the area.

[NY The Vampire State]

Erie county Superintendent pay - 2016-17 http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/n...aterank47.html

1. Williamsville - $227,052
K-12 enrollment - 10,092
Business First ranking - #2 out of 96 districts

2. West Seneca - $194,105,
K-12 enrollment - 6,750
Business First ranking - #33 out of 96 districts

3. Clarence - $193,800
K-12 enrollment - 4,581
Business First ranking - #3 out of 96 districts

4. Orchard Park - $190,922
K-12 enrollment - 4,895
Business First ranking - #4 out of 96 districts

5. Lancaster - $185,657
K-12 enrollment - 5,768
Business First ranking - #8 out of 96 districts

Vallely's salary is within the range of the others considering enrollment and BF ranking, IMHO.

Congratulations you're the best of the losers. Comparing the stats of one district to any other in this state will do nothing to cut the ridiculous tax burden and corruption we have. It does nothing to make New York a friendly competitive place to be. Why don't people get it. It's not for the children... it's for the unions. Every time.

[WNYresident]

None of the supers on SeeThrough have benefits included. Benefits are a normal cost for any employer. to include benefits as part of total salary is twisting the stats to fit your narrative. when I get asked an income question, such as on a loan application, I don't include my benefits in that number, nor do I know the value of my benefits.

Apples to apples (salary to salary), he is in line with the area.

You most certainly do include all costs related to a position to calculate your cost of services. I am not twisting stats.