Earning top dollar

Six of the 10 highest-paid superintendents of schools in Greater Boston work in the western suburbs, according to a Globe analysis.

Newton's Jeffrey M. Young leads the pack of local superintendents, with total compensation of $229,460. Young's pay was second only to the Boston superintendent in the analysis, which looked at 162 E astern Massachusetts superintendent posts.

The other area superintendents in the top 10 are Matthew King, Wellesley, $218,557 (third- highest in Eastern Massachusetts); Christopher Martes, Framingham, $192,617 (seventh ); Rosemary Joseph, Northboro ugh -Southborough, $192,300 (eighth ); Michael F. Fitzpatrick, Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School, $186,960, (ninth ); and Sheldon H. Berman, Hudson, $182,000 (10th). The Eastern. Mass. average for total compensation is $147,500.

The high salaries appear to reflect the affluence of the area and the value that residents place on education.

"The expectations are a little higher in those communities because you have people who are highly educated and they want everything to be the best for their children," said Irwin Blumer, chairman of the Educational Administration and Higher Education Department at Boston College. "They know there's a direct correlation between leadership and results in the school system."

Superintendents said they work hard for their money, and the compensation reflects the growing demands of the job and the importance of high-quality leadership.

The Globe calculated total compensation by adding base salary and perquisites , such as car allowances, additional insurance coverage, tax-sheltered annuities, and bonuses. The Globe reviewed superintendents' contracts both for the 2006-2007 school year and the 2003-2004 school year. The analysis found that school committees have used extras to boost superintendents' pay in recent years with little scrutiny from the public.

The most generous perks in Boston's western suburbs included $8,294 for a car allowance to Fitzpatrick, $11,255 in additional insurance coverage for King, and a $38,000 tax-sheltered annuity for Eugene F. Carlo, the superintendent-director in the Assabet Valley Regional Technical School District.

Education specialists and superintendents say pay has risen because the job is harder and fewer people want the stress.

Superintendents today must navigate through high-stakes testing, tight budgets, and new state and federal regulations. They must address the growing costs of special education, oversee school building projects, and ensure school safety.

"Their authority isn't as big as their accountability," said Douglas Sears, associate provost at Boston University and former dean of BU's School of Education. "Now, you have to know everything about curriculum and instruction, why you spent more on toilet-seat covers or whatever, and be ready when a school committee member who has an ax to grind asks a question."

"There are nights and weekends and midnight phone calls," said Sears, a former superintendent in Chelsea. "There are crises , and the crises are real."

Blumer, the Boston College professor, said the applicant pools for superintendent jobs have become smaller and shallower in recent years.

A posting that would have attracted 50 to 100 applicants a decade or so ago would garner only 20 at best these days, he said, and if there are three good candidates in the bunch, a school system would have to consider its search a success.

Some superintendents emphasized that they make far less than someone in the private sector leading as many employees and responsible for similar budgets.

"To some degree, superintendents are not in it for the money, otherwise they would be moving to private schools or private industry," said Berman, Hudson's superintendent. "The people who are in it are in it because they feel like they can make a difference. And they know that leadership matters."

Berman said that superintendents in New York and Connecticut command much higher salary-and-benefits packages than Massachusetts superintendents.

Berman said he has a highly demanding job and it's rare that he works fewer than 60 hours a week. In a cost-cutting move that other districts also have made, his assistant superintendent was eliminated a few years ago, shifting more work to him, as expectations about student performance keep escalating.

Matthew King, who has been a superintendent for almost 28 years, is retiring -- at age 58 -- from the top spot in the Wellesley school district at the end of this year, in part, he said, because the job has become too political.

King said he'd "like to go back to being an educator again."

Two major factors that have made superintendent jobs less attractive -- and therefore more difficult to fill -- are high-stakes testing, with the accompanying demands for improvement on scores, and the need for Proposition 2 1/2 overrides for school budgets and building projects , King said.

Not everyone thinks superintendents deserve such large compensation packages.

Chip Faulkner, associate director of the anti tax group, Citizens for Limited Taxation, said he believes superintendents are overpaid by about $50,000 a year .

"They certainly don't warrant the salaries they get," he said. "I've come across more vice principals that probably deserve higher compensation than school superintendents."

Newton resident Geoff Epstein complained that no one knows whether Young is worth his compensation because the School Committee won't release his performance evaluation.

"We're kind of left in the dark, so a lot of people feel like he's paid a lot of money, and is he getting an 'A' grade or a 'B' grade or what?" Epstein said. The parent of a sixth-grader, Epstein ran unsuccessfully for School Committee last fall.

Young responded that the evaluation is a tool for the School Committee to tell him "candidly and openly and honestly " how they rate his performance. If it were publicized, the committee wouldn't be so candid, he said, adding that the public can judge for themselves how he's doing running the schools.

Young wouldn't discuss his pay at length, saying only that the School Committee had conducted a compensation study and "the data that was collected in that study informs compensation decisions."

Dori Zaleznik, chairwoman of the Newton School Committee, said: "We understand that the superintendent is likely to get some attention for what he makes, but we believe we pay him fairly for a very complicated job."

Cheryl Turgel, president of the Newton Teachers Association , which recently battled with school officials in contract talks, also defended Young.

"If you looked at a CEO with the same responsibilities he has, they certainly would command a salary like that, if not quite a bit more," she said.

Marcia A. Lukon , superintendent in the Berlin-Boylston school district, is the lowest paid of the K-12 superintendents in the western suburbs, with a total package of $118,219.

Lukon, who took a pay cut when she left her post as Norfolk's elementary district superintendent, said she will leave when her contract is up in June. In part, that is because she had expected her salary to increase more than it did based on early conversations with School Committee members in Berlin and Boylston.

She said she has no regrets because she's accomplished what she set out to do in the district, but now she's ready to move on.

"Fair compensation is a big factor," Lukon said. "It's like other industries or professions -- there's market value."

Lisa Kocian can be reached at 508-820-4231 or at lkocian@globe.com.