Traditionally, the 20th anniversary is celebrated with china but we are marking the 20th anniversary of Pennsylvania’s charter school law with transparency and depth. While other local media outlets have reported on the sweeping change charter school choice has had on students and traditional school districts, our series will expand on that by teasing out the root of the tension between charters and other public schools: money and what appears to be differing standards of accountability. This series will expose and explain the data and records behind the charter schools operating in Allegheny County.

Even among the charter schools — both brick-and-mortar and cyber — there’s a wide range of compensation that, in some cases, doesn’t appear to always be tied to academic achievement or school size.

If you’re looking for logic or consistency in the salaries of charter school leaders in comparison with their traditional school district counterparts, it might be hard to find.

In that same school year, Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Anthony Hamlet drew a $210,000 salary for managing a district of about 24,000 students, a budget of about $570 million, staff of 4,300 and 70 buildings.

As the CEO of Commonwealth Charter Academy, Maurice Flurie received a 2016-17 salary of $225,500 for overseeing a statewide cyber school with an enrollment of 9,035 students, a budget of $116 million, staff of 500 and 11 family centers across the state.

Some of the smallest brick-and-mortar charters in Allegheny County have CEOs who are among the highest paid. At Manchester Academic, where 340 students were enrolled last year, CEO Vasilios Scoumis was paid $146,000. In comparison, Environmental Charter School CEO John McCann earned $120,000 with a school enrollment of 630 students.

Explore a table showing administrative salaries at Allegheny County brick-and-mortar charters

And among the cybers, CEO salaries vary greatly among schools of similar size and staffing and are often based on different factors. While Flurie earns $225,500 overseeing 9,035 students, CEO Brian Hayden received $150,000 for directing Pennsylvania Cyber’s 9,173 students.

Explore a table showing administrative salaries at Pennsylvania’s cyber charters

“It certainly doesn’t seem equitable to me,” said Mark DiRocco, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators. “But unfortunately, it’s a situation where every board gets to make that decision about their CEOs.”

With traditional school districts, DiRocco said superintendent salaries are set annually based on variables that include the size of the budget and district, the expertise level of the superintendent and what market salaries are in the area of the state where the district is located.

Explore a table showing superintendent salaries from traditional Allegheny County school districts

“When my salary is set, it is voted on in public. The public can have input and comment. Taxpayers can see it at the meetings,” said Sto-Rox Superintendent Frank Dalmas, who earned $123,659 in 2016-17.

But because the public rarely attends charter board meetings, especially the boards of statewide cyber charters, those boards don’t face the same pressure, DiRocco said.

“It’s easier to make those decisions and not have to worry about the fallout,” DiRocco said.

Charter school boards assess school leaders annually, but the factors considered vary by school.

The Commonwealth Charter board hires an outside firm that measures Flurie’s performance. It evaluates him similarly to how the leader of the American Red Cross or United Way would be evaluated. The firm also takes into account staff size, budget, number of students, geographical boundaries and the school’s nonprofit status.

Flurie is the highest-paid cyber charter CEO out of the nine who responded to Right-to-Know requests.

Hayden, of Pennsylvania Cyber, one of the the state’s largest and oldest cybers, said the number of students attending his school doesn’t affect his $150,000 salary. Recruitment of students is not factored in either.

The school is reviewing ways to evaluate the CEO and executive team, but no process is currently in place, he said. Typically, he said members of the school’s executive team earn percentage pay increases each year that are equivalent to those of the school’s non-union employees.

“While we do regularly monitor enrollment and use this data to develop yearly budgets, our students are not a commodity and I am uncomfortable in using recruitment goals to set compensation,” he said.

“It certainly doesn’t seem equitable to me. But unfortunately, it’s a situation where every board gets to make that decision about their CEOs.”

Among the brick-and-mortar charters in Allegheny County, the highest paid leader in 2016-17 was Propel CEO/Superintendent Tina Chekan at $160,000. Above her on Propel’s salary scale is founder Jeremy Resnick at $180,000. Resnick’s salary is paid by the Propel Foundation for which he serves as executive director.

In addition, each of Propel’s 13 schools has at least one principal, with salaries that range from $90,000 to $114,800.

David Fair, president of the Propel board of trustees, wrote in an email that the Propel board hires an independent consultant whose process “factors in experience, performance and other qualities” and analyzes “the salaries of similarly credentialed professionals at comparable peer institutions.”

Fair declined to name the peer institutions.

He said Chekan and Resnick earned their compensation because they have grown Propel into a “high-performing public charter school system.”

Propel has some of the highest performing charter schools in the county — including Propel East, Propel McKeesport and Propel Montour. But it also has some of the lowest performing, including Propel Northside and Propel Hazelwood.

Fair said the board’s definition of high performing was not limited to academics and also included Propel’s wellness program and after-school programs.

CEOs at some of the smaller charter schools in the county defended their salaries, saying they don’t have a large central administrative staff to delegate responsibilities

“I’m a principal and [chief academic officer]. I do the functions of both. I’m also outside getting kids off of the buses in the morning,” said Kim Fitzgerald, the CEO of Urban Pathways K-5 College Charter School. She made $100,045 in base salary along with a $5,000 bonus in the 2016-17 school year.

The ratio of school leaders’ dollars per student they oversee is all over the spectrum.

Hamlet makes about $9 a year for each student educated in the Pittsburgh school system, while Flurie earns about $25 per student at his school.

Brick-and-mortar charters paid their CEOs the most per student, with the average CEO earning $435 per student. The CEO at Spectrum Charter School earned $1,800 per student for the school’s 36 students.