On March 2, the Empire Center, an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank based in Albany, updated the latest employment agreements for school superintendents on SeeThroughNY.net. The contracts for the Pine Bush, Valley Central and Wallkill superintendents are competitive with most others from around the state.

Superintendent of the Pine Bush Central School District Tim Mains currently makes an annual base salary of $204,000, with the Board of Education determining his salary in the subsequent years from his start date during the 2016-17 school year. John Xanthis, Superintendent of the Valley Central School District, is currently being paid a gross annual salary of $215,000 and Kevin Castle, Superintendent of the Wallkill Central School District is earning a base salary of $180,000.

At least 165 of the 177 new school superintendent contracts released by the Empire Center include pay of $100,000 or more and 52 were over $200,000, with school superintendents in Westchester County and Long Island placing at the top of the list.

The salaries for the Pine Bush, Valley Central and Wallkill Superintendents were competitive with most other districts throughout the state but were far less than the highest paid superintendents. Russell Stewart, Superintendent of the Smithtown Central School District, is the highest paid superintendent in the state and earned a salary of $300,000 for the 2019-20 school year.

Superintendents from the Commack Union Free, Port Washington, Syosset Central and New Rochelle City School Districts rounded out the top five highest paid superintendent salaries in the state.

Mains, Xanthis and Castle earned higher salaries than most school superintendents in the United States. According to Salary.com, a consumer and enterprise resource for compensation data, the average School Superintendent salary in the United States was $161,639 as of Feb. 26, 2020. Mains and Xanthis’ salaries place them within the 75th percentile of school superintendent salaries in the nation.

Benjamin Sano, the Empire Center’s Research Analyst who runs SeeThroughNY.net, posted the superintendents’ contracts after submitting dozens of FOIL requests to various municipalities. He believes that knowledge of superintendents’ salaries is critical.

“Personally I think it’s important to know what is going on, to know how much the superintendents are making,” he said. “It’s important to have transparency about how we fund the government