TEMPLE, Texas — The Texas Education Agency (TEA) recently released data on public school superintendent salaries from the 2023 to 2024 school year – and it shows that the top earners in Central Texas aren’t necessarily in charge of districts with the highest number of students.
According to the Texas Association of School Boards, student enrollment, staff size, geography and experience all factor into a school board's compensation offer to superintendent candidates. However, the districts with the discrepancies in Central Texas are McLennan and Bell.
In McLennan County, for example, La Vega ISD’s Superintendent Dr. Sharon M. Shields earns $306,264, excluding benefits and allowances, according to the data. The district has an enrollment of 3,120, which is nearly 10,000 less students compared to the county’s second highest-earning superintendent, Dr. Susan Kincannon with a base pay of $284,673, in 23-24.
China Spring ISD is another district with the same discrepancy in McLennan County. Despite having a higher enrollment than districts like Robinson and Connally ISDs, which pay their superintendents more, China Spring ISD Superintendent Dr. Marc Faulkner earns between roughly $25,000 to $1,000 less.
Over in Bell County, the story is slightly different with Temple ISD being the outlier. In general, superintendents in Bell County get paid accordingly to the number of students enrolled in their district, except Dr. Bobby Ott with Temple ISD.
The district with the highest enrollment of nearly 43,900 students is Killeen ISD, which compensates Dr. JoAnn Fey with the highest salary for the county at $325,000. Ott with Temple ISD trails in second at $280,000, but has an enrollment number of 8,784, which is nearly 35,000 less students than Killeen ISD and over 5,000 students less than Belton ISD -- despite Dr. Matthew Smith earning an annual salary of $254,892, according to TEA data.
One of the Central Texas school districts that received scrutiny over its 23-24 year was Marlin ISD, which has an enrollment of nearly 1,000 students. Its superintendent, Dr. Darryl Henson, received a pay of $235,000 a year.
Even so, pay in Falls County -- and other smaller Central Texas counties -- appears to fall generally in line with the number of students enrolled in the district, as seen below.
If you'd like to see what school district superintendents get paid the most in Texas, click here.