The Real Data Behind that $85,500 Pay Raise

A lot of folks have been asking about the recent salary raise. First I’d like to point out, anytime a public official has an increase in salary, people will notice and they should! It is our taxpayer dollars.

I looked at what factors determine the salaries of superintendents. In 2018, York Daily News surveyed superintendent salaries [1] and included enrollment [2], budget size [3], and rankings [4] as relevant. I took a combination of the publicly available data and looked for comparable schools to get a baseline.

CBSD’s expenditures in 2022 are $353M with an enrollment of 17,573. Niche gives us an A+, ranking us the 11th best school district in the Philadelphia area. I looked at suburban districts like ours with comparable budgets, say +/- $100M. Also took all PA districts with tens of thousands of students. Finally I added all A+ ranked districts to the list.

When you put all the data together, you end up seeing a cluster of four districts all very similar:

• Downingtown Area,
• West Chester Area,
• Lower Merion, and
• Central Bucks.

They have between $250M - $353M in expenditures, 8k - 17k students.

The salaries of their superintendents are:

• $295,284 (Downingtown),
• $282,220 (West Chester Area),
• $270,000 (Lower Merion), and
• $225,000 (CBSD).

Given this set, it is clear that Dr. Lucabaugh was underpaid by at least $45k/year for the last two years. This is because he has the lowest salary of the four, but the

• highest expenditures,
• highest student enrollment, and also
• highest number of employees (only exceeded by the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia school districts).

I also noticed next door North Penn is strictly dominated by Central Bucks, in that they have:

• smaller expenditures ($280M < $353M),
• enrollment (12.8k < 17.6k),
• employee count (1117 < 1432 [5]) and
• Niche rating (A < A+).

Their superintendent makes $295,132 a year. So I could see it reasonable to use that as a lower bound, even though as a fiscal conservative I would try hard to convince a candidate to sign for less…

The following factors would make it difficult to make that argument:

• Dr. Lucabaugh has been in education for 28 years, 16 years of that in CBSD: He started as a teacher in Hatboro in 1995, then became a principal in CBSD starting in 2007. Since then he has organically moved up in the ranks. He lives here, unlike the prior superintendent (Dr. Kopicki) who commuted from Scranton in Lackawanna County.
• When he was hired, he was underpaid (Using North Penn as a comparison, at $70k/year) for the last two years. This current salary increase partly addresses prior below market compensation.
• We have gone through a period of inflation and labor shortages not seen since the 1970s. Salaries are at an all time high. People are seeing new high water marks for compensation across all industries these past three years.
• The superintendent gets personal and media attacks on an almost daily basis.

I wasn’t involved with the negotiations, nor do I have inside information, so I can’t say how these factors could have affected the final number. I understand others who are not happy with this decision. If I am elected to the school board I will do my best to be transparent and data-driven, to avoid even the hint of impropriety.

[1]: https://www.openthebooks.com/pennsylvania/
[2]: https://www.education.pa.gov/.../PublicSchEnrReports.aspx
[3]: https://www.education.pa.gov/.../Finances%20AFR...
[4]: https://www.niche.com/.../best.../m/philadelphia-metro-area/
[5]: https://govsalaries.com/cat/school-district?employer=central%20bucks&state=PA
[6]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abe-lucabaugh-1a260328/