Rantz: Anger over Seattle superintendent raise is ‘ridiculous shaming’ fueled by emotion

Parents are not happy with the Seattle school district. So, in other words, it’s your average day.

This time, they’re mad with Larry Nyland, the Seattle School District’s superintendent who just received a nearly $14,000 raise at a time when the teacher’s union is complaining about teacher’s not getting enough money and schools not getting enough resources.

Related: Seattle School Board approves later start times

The argument from the school board is that this keeps the salary competitive. The raise helps retain Nyland, who could just as easily go to another district or quit. If that happened, the school board could have a tough time finding someone to take the pay that’s not comparable to other cities.

“One only has to look at the amount of turnover to understand that retention of a superintendent is critical, and compensation is a critical factor in that retention,” School Board President Sherry Carr told The Seattle Times. “It’s especially true for a superintendent in a major urban school district and so the compensation is to be set commensurate with the difficulty of the role.”

So now, he’s making a base salary of $289,879, plus he gets a cellphone, laptop, $700 a month stipend for car expenses, and $24,000 a year in retirement benefits.

Nyland has said he’ll donate the raise back to the Seattle Public Schools general fund.

Now, with an annual base of $289,000, it makes him the highest paid superintendent in the state. That shouldn’t be a shock given the size of the district.

To give you some content, in the Arlington School District the job gets $232,000. The Bellevue superintendent receives about $247,000. Tacoma pays about $253,000. And Kent pays about $263,000.

Nonetheless, parents are ticked off.

Carolyn Leith, a parent with children who attend Olympic View Elementary and Jane Addams Middle schools says, “It seems like a folly to purposefully raise the bar for more compensation for superintendents across the state, especially in light of (the) McCleary (court decision on school funding).”

Mom Shawna Murphy, who has a dyslexic daughter in sixth grade who’s efficiency has been helped by an iPad, wrote in to Seattle Weekly, “Your $13,000 raise could have purchased 50 iPads for kids with dyslexia from low income families. Donate your raise to the kids and teachers. They need it more than you do.”

Or maybe the mother can write a letter to Microsoft or Google to get Surfaces or Chromebooks?

This is ridiculous shaming that is fueled more by activist emotion than an understanding of the realities of this kind of job and what salary it demands.

You have to pay people for the position and the job requirements &#8212 if you don’t think Nyland is worth it, then get rid of him and hire someone who will address the problems you perceive to be in desperate need of a fix.

But that doesn’t change the fact that a position like this, in a city such as Seattle &#8212 with parents like the ones that exist here &#8212 deserve a certain salary.