Superintendent Everett V. Olsen’s salary increase of 1.5 percent was approved by the School Committee on Aug. 15.
The bump will give him an annual salary of $192,909 retroactive to July 1. It’s unclear whether there is an expense and car allowance, performance bonus or other additional monies as the contract was not available. Two email requests to School Committee Chairman Terry Ryan were not immediately returned.
In May, voters approved a $1.6 million tax hike to bridge a 6 percent teachers salary gap as compared to teachers in comparable school systems. The current three-year teachers contract ends on Aug. 31.
Here’s what superintendents in nearby towns are earning:
- Billerica Superintendent Tim Piwowar will receive $177,725 in fiscal 2018 (beginning July 1), representing a 2.25 percent increase.
- Concord-Carlisle Superintendent Laurie Hunter arrived July 1 at a salary of $200,000 for the regional school district. She was most recently the assistant superintendent in Duxbury. Hunter’s contract provides for a 2.25 percent annual increase and a $3,000 car allowance.
- Chelmsford Superintendent Roger J. Lang’s fiscal 2018 salary is $180,000 with a $5,000 performance bonus.
- Glenn Brand stepped down in June as Acton-Boxborough’s superintendent, but in accordance, with his agreement, the town will pay his $200,000 salary for the coming year. An interim superintendent will run the school system in the meantime.
Massachusetts has a shortage of superintendents and a large turnover from year to year, according to published reports. Olsen joined Westford as the business manager in 1985. The position eventually expanded into assistant superintendent. He was appointed as superintendent in the mid-2000s.
In 2015 AASA The Superintendents Association published a salary survey of superintendents’ income across the country. The major findings included:
- “Base salaries ranged from $55,000 to $322,171, with a median of $131,000 and an average of $140,021.
- Respondents are predominately male (80 percent), white (92 percent) and from intermediate-sized districts (300-2,499 students, 52 percent) regardless of their gender.
- Female respondents were, on average, older than male respondents (53 to 53 respectively).
- A four-year trend of improving economic conditions continues. Slightly more than half of the respondents (53 percent) reported their districts’ economic conditions as stable, which holds steady from 2014; this has increased from 50 percent in 2013 and 45 percent in 2012.”
(To access a copy of the AASA Superintendents Salary and Benefits Study, click here.)
The fiscal 2018 salaries of the Westford school administrative staff are as follows:
                     Fiscal 2018    Increase from Fiscal 2017
Assistant Superintendent — $150,000Â Â Â Â (7.3 percent)
Director of Pupil Services — $126,000Â Â Â Â Â Â ((2.4 percent)
Director of School Finance — $122,250Â Â Â (4.6 percent)
Principal of Westford Academy — $139,800Â (2.2 percent)
Principal of Stony Brook School — $119,000Â (2.7 percent)
Principal of Blanchard School — $119,000 (2.7 percent)
Principal of Abbot School — $107,159Â Â Â Â Â Â (1.5 percent)
Principal of Crisafulli School — $113,922Â (1.5 percent)
Principal of Day School — $107,158Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â (new in fiscal 2018)
Principal of Miller School — $109,173Â Â Â Â Â Â Â (1.5 percent)
Principal of Nabnasset School — $117,562 (1.5 percent)
Principal of Robinson School — $113,401Â Â Â (1.5 percent)
Dean of Westford Academy — $108,000Â Â Â Â Â (7.0 percent)
Dean of Westford Academy — $106,000 Â Â Â (3.6 percent)
Dean of Westford Academy — $108,000 Â Â Â Â (5 percent)
Assistant Principal of Stony Brook — $103,000 (5.8 percent)
Assistant Principal of Blanchard –$99,000Â (new in fiscal 2018)
Assistant Principal of Nabnasset/Abbot — $101,800 (4.5 percent)
Assistant Principal of Miller/Day — $101,800 (new in fiscal 2018)
Assistant Principal of Robinson/Crisafulli – $95,738 (4.4 percent)
Total school administrative salaries (including the superintendent’s) for fiscal 2018 will be $2,460,672.
