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Contact: Tim Hoefer

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A searchable online database of earnings for 402,896 employees of New York State school districts outside New York City was posted today at www.SeeThroughNY.net, the transparency website sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy.

The newly updated database includes earnings for teachers, administrators and other educational professionals, as reported for the 12 month-period ending June 30, 2010 to the New York State Teachers Retirement System. It also includes earnings for non-professional employees, such as custodians, aides and bus drivers, for the 12 month-period ending March 31, 2010, as reported to the New York State Employees Retirement System.

According to the data, the highest paid school employee (outside New York City) was James A. Feltman, who was paid $657,970. Feltman retired as Superintendent of the Commack School District on June 30, 2010. For a list of the 100 highest-paid school employees in districts outside New York City click here. (New York City school salaries were updated on SeeThroughNY in July.)

Scarsdale School District had the highest average educator pay of $111,991, followed by the Bronxville, Jericho, Peekskill, Greenburgh and Yonkers school districts, all of which reported average educator salaries above $90,000. The averages in many cases are depressed by the inclusion on the list of numerous substitute teachers and part-timers whose reported salaries came to only a few thousand dollars per year.

SeeThroughNY allows the public to examine government expenditures on the internet. In addition to school payroll data, it includes payrolls for New York State and New York City government, counties and municipalities throughout the state, and dozens of public authorities. Also posted are pension data for former state and local governments and school district employees; state legislators’ office expenditures and pork barrel “member item” projects, and a benchmarking feature for comparing local government and school district spending. The site was launched July 31, 2008.

The Albany-based Empire Center is a non-partisan, independent think tank.

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