Q&A of the Day – How Much Palm Beach County’s School Superintendent Makes 

Q&A of the Day – How Much Palm Beach County’s School Superintendent Makes 

Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.   

Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com  

Social: @brianmuddradio 

iHeartRadio: Use the Talkback feature – the microphone button on our station’s page in the iHeart app.    

Today’s Entry: Submitted via talkback asking about turnover in the PBC School Superintendent position along with the pay package that comes with the position. 

Bottom Line: Your perception of high turnover occurring with the Palm Beach County School Superintendent position is in fact reality. Operating as the tenth largest school district in the country, with over 200,000 students attending greater than 180 schools, the position isn’t just an important and prominent one in this community, it’s one of the most consequential in the country. Historically the length of tenure for the PBC School Superintendent has been all over the map. The longest serving school super was Howell Watkins who served in the post for fifteen years between the 40’s and 60’s. The shortest tenure was just the one month that James Daniels served when the former assistant Superintendent of schools was called out of retirement until a permanent replacement could be named. Since 2011, a total of twelve years, the Palm Beach County School District has had a total of six superintendents – stemming from the outgoing Art Johnson who left the district amid controversy and alleged corruption in early 2011, to the current Superintendent Mike Burke who’s been in the post for just over two years and who just last month was granted a contract extension to remain in his current post through 2028. As for the details behind why there’s been so much turnover and what it pays to be the superintendent of the tenth largest school district in the country... 

I hope we can all agree that having six school superintendents in twelve years isn’t efficient and likely speaks to management failures within the district. Those failures could be a byproduct of the leadership of the School Board, the superintendents chosen by the school boards or both. Starting with the aforementioned Art Johnson, he was unanimously ousted with three years remaining on his contract by the school board after the superintendent was found to have repeatedly allowed Chief Academic Officer Jeffrey Hernandez to misuse the school district’s sick leave policy to consult the Memphis School District for $1,500 per day. There was a six-month investigation into the misdeeds and the abrupt ouster brought about William Malone. Malone was only on the job for eight months, transitioning between two school years, when he stepped down due to health reasons. That brought about the Wayne Gent era in the Palm Beach County School District.  

In what was the next indication of a potential management failure by the Palm Beach County School Board, Gent took over from Malone on an interim basis, having even agreed that he would not seek the permanent post. However, a national recruiting search led to a stalemate among board members, and they instead hired Gent on a permanent contract. In a telling move, that perhaps spoke to underlying issues with the School Board, Gent left the position three and a half years later to become superintendent of the substantially smaller St. Lucie School District. Next up was Robert Avossa, recruited from Atlanta’s, Fulton County School District, he served for just under three years before deciding to leave the post citing family considerations. That brought about Donald Fennoy, who was Avossa’s understudy. Like Avossa, Fennoy held the job for just about three years before also deciding to step down. While Fennoy likewise cited family considerations, his decision came after a botched rollout of the remote learning model at the onset of the pandemic, the signing off of mask mandates for children to eventually return to the classroom, and repeated calls by parental rights advocates calling for his removal. And that takes us to the current Super Mike Burke. As for what the job pays... 

Burke’s just agreed to contract extension pays a base salary of $340,000 annually. That’s an increase from the $300,000 he was hired for originally. The Palm Beach County School District’s decision for the increase was reportedly a move to remain competitive and to avoid additional turnover. Board Chair Frank Barbieri cited 61 of Florida’s 67 school districts as having lost superintendents within the prior four years (though it’s unclear how many of those were due specifically to financial considerations). In terms of longevity going forward, there’s reason to believe Burke will at least seek to work out the contract extension he just signed and end the frequent turnover we’ve seen over the prior twelve years. Prior to becoming superintendent he’d been the school district’s CFO for 15 years. As for the rest of the pay package, despite his initial request for lawyers, guns and money – it appears that only money was delivered. His health benefits are consistent with other district employees. Burke has term-life insurance in the amount of his annual salary, a standard disability insurance option and a monthly car allowance of $1,200. He also receives $1,000 monthly expense reimbursements and a retirement package consistent with the state managed Florida Retirement System pension.