The Connecticut Aftermath

Connecticut Post - Susan Silvers

For school leaders, at least the pay is great. The one thing almost everybody knows about the job of superintendent of schools is this: It pays really well. I have yet to find a town or city where the school super isn't the highest-paid employee. Mayors and first selectmen seethe with envy over this disparity. In rich suburbs like Darien and Wilton, the superintendents are paid enough that, if they chose to, they could commute by helicopter.

In Bridgeport, Supt. of Schools Sonia Diaz Salcedo's salary does not exactly fall into the chump change category. Salcedo earns a base salary of $172,000 per annum, but last year raked in close to 200 big ones after benefits and vacation are added in.

Mayor John M. Fabrizi, while not obviously starving, is paid a comparatively wimpy $106,000.
Of course, Salcedo, a lovely woman with a very expensive-looking haircut and two Ph.D. degrees, won't be collecting that check for long. She's leaving. In the circumlocutions of modern government, "her contract was not renewed." She also might not finish the school year if the city buys out her contract, which it is expected to do this week.

At a recent session of the Bridgeport Board of Education, the adjectives used to describe the superintendent were hardly complimentary. One person described getting rid of Salcedo as "like vomiting toxic food."

What a difference three and a half years makes. In June 2000, when Salcedo beat four contenders for the super's job, she was called "very professional," "smart" and "articulate." A couple of years later a disgruntled fan left two redolent fish outside her front door. That's the trouble with getting paid a lot. People tend to expect a lot.