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# Administrators dominate Santa Monica-Malibu district's top 30 highest-paid employees
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/administrators-take-top-school-salaries-twenty-five-of-the-30-highest-paid-district-employees-last-school-year-didnt-work-primarily-in-the-classroom-a/
- Published: 2004-11-22T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T05:38:54.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Education, Malibu, #archive-import

*Santa Monica teachers land on the pay scale.*

DISTRICT HDQTRS. — All but five of the 30 highest-paid school district employees last year were administrators with duties mainly outside the classroom, records show.

Superintendent John Deasy, taking home more than $170,000, topped the list. He was followed by the district’s deputy and assistant superintendents, its head computer technician and the principal of Santa Monica High School, according to school-district documents. And the school board last week approved creating a new top administrator position — assistant superintendent of special education, which commands $153,000 a year.

The most highly paid classroom teacher last school year ranked 10th in earnings throughout the district, with nearly $108,000 in pay. A middle school teacher and three high school teachers also were among the district’s top 30 highest-paid workers, each earning more than $99,000.

Education leaders agreed budget shortages have placed California teachers among the lowest-paid teachers nationwide. They disagreed, though, on where Deasy said teachers in the joint Santa Monica-Malibu school district are the highest paid in the county, which means they beat out teachers in districts such as Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. What’s more, Deasy said the local district has fewer administrators than three quarters of the school districts in the county.

“We rank in the bottom fourth compared to administrators per pupil,” he said. “We have fewer administrative positions per pupil than most districts. That is so we can spend more money on teachers.”

Deasy said he wished teachers were better paid, but added the discrepancy in earnings was due partly to the difference in work schedules and the responsibilities associated with different positions. Teachers countered that the district’s priorities ought to be reconsidered.

“What it tells people is that if you have an economic necessity, if you have the need to make more money, you’ve got to get out of teaching and go into administration,” said algebra instructor Joel Post, the top earner among teachers. “It seems to me that there should be a reversal of that, and that those people that work most directly with students, they should be rewarded for staying and working with the students.”

To reach $108,000 in earnings last year, Post taught an extra period of classes during the school year, as well as taught summer school classes and a special science magnet program. As a 34-year veteran of the district with an advanced degree, Post already was in the highest earnings bracket with a base salary of $79,000\. Teachers who have been employed at the district for at least 27 years earn the highest salaries — $80,000.

Many of the administrative positions in the district apparently pay better than the county average. According to a preliminary study performed by the Los Angeles County Office of Education, high school principals in Santa Monica earn up to $572 a day, as opposed to the $473 county average. Also above the county average are salaries for junior high and elementary school principals, their assistants and school psychologists. The pay for school counselors and the schools superintendent appears slightly below average, according to the county study, which examined the 2003-2004 school year. Harry Keiley, president of the local teacher union, indicated that teachers might lobby for a pay raise next year. Keiley agreed in negotiations with school officials this past summer to a modest 1 percent pay raise for teachers in exchange for maintaining relatively strong health benefits. Keiley said he earns $64,657 as a teacher on “special assignment,” plus a $15,000 annual stipend from the union.

“The teachers in the Santa Monica- Malibu Unified School District deserve to be the best-paid teachers in the state of California, and they deserve to be the best-paid teachers in the state of California because of their excellence, because of their commitment, because of the excellence we have in our schools,” he said. “Being a public school administrator is a tough job, but there’s no job more difficult and more challenging and more important in public schools than being a classroom teacher — and the district’s budgetary priorities should be the classroom, first and foremost.”

How the district could support a pay raise for teachers is unclear. In 2002-2003, the school district spent nearly $38 million paying the salaries of 657 certificated teachers, according to a district-prepared report to the county. With state funding drying up, Santa Monica residents and City Hall have kicked in millions of extra dollars to keep the district afloat.

Regardless of what happens, Deasy said he empathizes with teachers.

“We don’t have much money to pay people anything — average salaries in California in all these districts are incredibly low,” he said. “You can’t live in Santa Monica on these salaries.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 22, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112204.pdf?ref=smdp.com)