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# School district ‘top heavy’
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/school-district-top-heavy-editor/
- Published: 2004-12-02T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T05:46:18.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Malibu, #archive-import

*By Tyrone Murphy Santa Monica*

It amazes me at how many people keep saying that Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District administrators are underpaid.

How about the fact that teachers and classified staff have had either no raise or a 1 percent raise over the last few years? How about all of the teachers and classified staff that were almost laid off two years ago? Thank goodness for the good-hearted people of Santa Monica and Malibu who passed Measure S to save a lot of working people’s jobs. I didn't hear any administrators saying they would take a pay cut to save someone else’s job. Let’s face it, with the budget shortfalls we have and the very small size of our district, many administrators, especially the superintendent, make enough if not a bit too much compared to the rest of the state and country. I think the point the article (SMDP, Nov. 22, page 1) was making is that this district is top heavy. Its starting teachers make a much lower salary compared to other districts and the classified staff of this district are also paid lower. Both CTA and SEIU cannot squeeze hardly an extra money from the cash-strapped district.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 2, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/120204.pdf?ref=smdp.com)