Public school teachers across the region have reason to wonder whether the state budget

crisis will cost them and thousands of their colleagues their jobs.

But while teachers worry about pink slips, superintendents are seeing lots of green.

Nearly all of the region's 37 superintendents in the suburban, small city and rural

communities outside Buffalo broke new ground this decade with annual salary-and-benefit

packages that raced well beyond inflation and pushed many into the $200,000-a-year range.

Chart: School superintendent salaries

What is widely considered "the lost decade" for the financially beleaguered private sector here and the rest of the country, was no loss for public schools superintendents:

Pay for all but one school superintendent in Erie and Niagara counties outpaced

inflation, in most cases by double digits, according to data from the state Education

Department. Starpoint Superintendent C. Douglas Whelan's pay soared.

Spending by those districts totaled $1.97 billion for the 2009-10 year, nearly a 50

percent jump for the decade. The total tax levy was $873.5 million, or about a 40 percent

increase. Both increases were higher than the rate of inflation.

All told, the superintendents in Erie and Niagara counties cost taxpayers about

$7.1 million in salary and benefits, or 54 percent more than a decade ago, even though many

presided over years of mostly stagnant or declining enrollments.

Buffalo is not included because the state Education Department does not collect the same

data for any of New York's "Big Five" school districts.

Superintendent pay is a drop in the budget bucket for any school district. But for critics,

it is an important symbol of what they consider a decade of excess.

"I don't know why we need all these superintendents," said Ed Schneider, of Evans Taxpayers

United. "They all just have their little fiefdoms. But people don't have the money for it."

Lately, the salaries are a particularly bitter pill to swallow. Locked in the toughest

contract talks in decades, teachers complain that no one ever looks at the costs — or

even necessity — of administrators.

"We are tired of having a big red target on our backs," said Eric Przykuta, head of the

Lancaster Teachers Association, which is trying to squeeze pay raises out of the district.

Lancaster Superintendent Edward J. Myszka is freezing his $162,000 annual salary, as are

the administrators in the district's Central Office. The rest of the employees have declined

to do so.

An audience of students, parents and staff heckled Myszka when he announced he was freezing

his salary. A handful of other superintendents have done so, but likewise are not getting much

thanks for it.

"They are doing things" to curb their costs, painfully aware of the layoffs, program cuts

and tax increases they are including in budgets, said Vincent Coppola, a former superintendent

who has spent 11 years conducting superintendent searches for school districts.

"Some of them are freezing their pay, giving back raises," said Coppola, who works for the

Western New York Educational Service Council. "They contribute 15 [percent], 20 percent to

their health insurance. They are trying. It's just an angry time right now."

One critic said skyrocketing pay for the boss is not so surprising, since teachers in some

districts now earn $90,000 or more.

"They think nothing of making a lot of money," Lise Bang-Jensen, a senior policy analyst at

the Empire Center for New York State, said of superintendents. "They have no concept of the

recession, the economy, of what people [outside of education] get paid."

But Coppola echoed the sentiments of others in public education who say today's

superintendent pay should not be branded as excessive and a waste of dwindling tax dollars.

"Obviously, it's a lot of money," Coppola said. "But if they are doing their jobs, they are

saving quite a bit of money too."

Superintendents' salaries have risen so much, in part, because a historic shortage has made

them a hot commodity. That, Coppola says, gives them a lot of leverage at the bargaining

table.

Some "school boards offer more money than they want to," Coppola said. "They don't want to

settle for second best."

Starpoint's Whelan is an example of how salaries can jump so high. He said the district

hired him 11 years ago at $94,000, one of a dozen district heads who hadn't cracked six

figures at that time.

He said he started low because — despite many years as an assistant head of finance

for a variety of districts — he hadn't been a superintendent.

"I was untested," Whelan said. But he noted that he successfully ushered the district

through everything from a big capital improvement project to balancing budgets despite cuts in

state aid.

Once he had proved himself, he wanted more.

"I felt I deserved to be compensated like other superintendents," Whelan said, adding that

he let the School Board know he would look for a new job if his demand wasn't met.

It was. Although Starpoint's enrollment is 2,782, his salary today is $177,143, the highest

by far of superintendents whose pay he once mirrored.

He is the fourth highest paid superintendent outside Buffalo, state data shows. He barely

trails his colleagues in Frontier Central, with 5,301 students, and Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda,

with 8,275 students.

Whelan attributed his high pay, in part, to longevity. He now is one of the longer serving

superintendents in the area. His counterparts at both Ken-Ton and Frontier have about three

years on the job.

"I've benefited quite well since I've been here," he said. "I am grateful to the Starpoint

community for all its support."

Howard S. Smith, superintendent of Williamsville schools, the largest suburban district,

was hired in 2004 and is now paid $216,500, the state data shows. That is just slightly less

than Buffalo Schools Superintendent James Williams' annual salary of $220,000. His benefits

total $66,119.

Smith would not comment for this article. Instead, he deferred to School Board President

William Freeman. But a district representative said Freeman might be out of town. He did not

return calls or an e-mail seeking comment.

Clarence Superintendent Thomas Coseo is paid $205,000. His benefits cost $67,610.

With 19 years as head of Clarence schools, Coseo is one of the area's longest-serving

superintendents. That, he said, accounts to some degree for his salary.

"You invest your life's work in a community," Coseo said about one of the requirements of

being a superintendent. "The board wanted a time commitment from me, not someone who would

hold the job two or three years and then use it as a stepping stone."

He already had 10 years' experience as a superintendent when he left a district in the

Syracuse area to take the reins at Clarence, which was just starting to grow. His beginning

salary was $90,000.

"It's been mutually beneficial," he said of his tenure.

Coppola said critics don't understand that heading a school district is a stressful,

high-risk job. Superintendents serve at the school board's pleasure — and when boards

change, their attitudes toward the superintendent can go sour.

They also go through annual evaluations by their school boards and have contracts that

average three to four years.

Lately, Coppola is particularly upset by the disrespect shown to superintendents.

"I'm worried about the name calling, the personal attacks," he said. "I don't know if we'll

ever get back to where we should be."