America's Talking - In New York, some school secretaries make six-figures and more

Episode Date: November 29, 2025

Secretaries are well known for earning modest wages, but not the ones who work at Pocantico Hills Central School District. The school district of 500 students outside New York City has its secretaries rack up $130,000 and $190,000 a year, an investigation by The Center Square found.Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxx Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to America's Talking. I'm Johnny Edward, Southeast investigative reporter for the Center Square, and I'm here with Mark Strickers, Northeast investigative reporter for the center square. Mark just exposed some pretty heavy spending on personnel by some public schools in the state of New York, including some districts outside New York City spending well above the norm on salaries for teachers and other even support staff. Mark, what kind of salaries and pay packages did you find? One secretary is making a total pay package about $200,000 this school year. She has a salary about $110 and benefits of another $70,000, $80,000. She has been there for 20 years, and the district, Botanical Hills, is about 25 miles outside of New York City. And, in fact, one of the Don D. Rockefeller had a house there built in the 19th century. a well-to-do area, and it's a smaller school district, just a couple of hundred students and it's K-8. So I'll bring up all those factors together, and you make school secretaries making almost $200,000. There's another secretary who started a couple years ago. She's making $130,000

a total pay package, not just salary. So now what other districts did you look at, and what did you find there. I looked at a number of school districts in and around New York City, such as long island, as well as a few upstate overall. And the ones usually might expect around Manhattan are the most expensive districts where they're small and that means they have to pay more for facilities and provide all of the benefits, the programs that other school districts do with fewer resources you might say fewer students so the economies of scale are not there so they had to spend more per student that they might say like 70,000 dollars that the botanical hills the district I mentioned that's more than 70,000 dollars per student and that's compares to a state

average of 35,000 versus a national average about 15 to 20,000 dollars that gives you some perspective of how much some of the school districts are spending per student. Well, now, putting that aside, you know, I don't know a whole lot about the cost of living in this part of the country. I know New York City is very exorbitant. Are these salaries really out of line for this part of the country? That's a good question. I guess it's a bit of the eye of the beholder.

It depends on how much, the fact, as one school district superintendent told me, he said, well, you kind of get what you pay for. And we've had to spend a lot or live outside of New York City. So what else can we do? But then again, how much the districts want to pay for non-school teachers is more of a question because Americans like school teachers and think they're underpaid. But they don't think school secretaries are underpaid. Well, you hit the nail on the head, but a lot of people might say that all people

working in public schools, working with kids in any capacity, deserve to have more pay. why should taxpayers be concerned about these findings? Just because the school district spends so much more than the typical school district, I mean, you're spending $70,000 for a student to put in perspective a lot of public schools, public colleges, universities, even some private universities don't charge $70,000 tuition, yet these school districts do. I see. So you have to look at the big picture, look at the scale.

that. Yes. I see. Now, one of the more eye-popping findings in the story was you found a physical education teacher making close to $150,000 a year, not including, you know, other benefits, perks. How is something like that happening? He's been there since 1995, so 30 years, and he's got a salary of 150, 155, and then he has another $60,000 in benefits. And you add that up, and he's in a, well, the school district and you get not just six figures but two six figures total pay package yeah I mean that's not bad at all

maybe we went into the wrong business making that kind of money to be a PE teacher well that's what does it kind of the public debate seems to be missing is that the school teachers don't make a whole lot but if they stay there longer they spend their years then they can make decent money certainly they can in around New York City.

Right. And to that note, you spoke with an assistant superintendent who said something that effect of if I paid less, I'd have a whole lot of turnover. Do you buy that? I do. Just given that the secretaries of the Pocanical Hill School District, the one that's about 25 miles outside of Manhattan, the one confidential secretary is making $1.90, and that was making $130,000. The secretary making $130,000. is because she just started three or four years ago, whereas the one making $190,000, she started 20 years ago. So that's $60,000 a year difference.

I will say that the assistant superintendent and I talked to at Pocanago Hills, he pointed out that the secretary making a lot more, actually, both secretaries really, are doing many jobs. It's not just packing up memos and clerical work. some organizational work as well. Is he suggesting that they... Right, right, right. Is he suggesting, do you think

that they need to hire more people that assist with this doing many jobs? He didn't suggest that. He just was trying to defend his employees for criticism of how much they make. I see, I see. Well, did you find when you looked at this data, did you find anyone making more normal pay

in these districts, or was everybody in the district seemed to be out of scale? That's a good point. Some employees did make what you consider, say, $70,000, $80,000 a year pay packages. It's not just every employee making six figures. Some school districts will say like Fire Island, they spend more of the $100,000 per student a year. Some of their employees will make $60,000 or $70,000. The big cost is facilities, buildings, capital, upkeep on buildings for their costs. It's not just the factor of the school teacher salaries and employee salaries would be just one factor, maybe even a minor one, like Scarsdale, New York, the school district.

The media, the typical school teacher in Scarsdale, New York, outside of New York City, makes $155,000. thousand dollars a year, and yet they, in that school district, the, that district only pays about 40 to 45,000 dollars per student, I say only, but that's far less than, say, Pocanical Hills, or the school secretaries make more, but they, Poccalo Hills spent 70, 75,000 per student. These are, uh, 20, 23, 24 figures, by the way, this is the latest figure available. I see. In all of those things, facilities, all those things you mentioned, those go into that cost per student. Absolutely. I see. Now, those that are making, you know, $60,000, you know, help educate me. I'm the Southeast

investigative reporter. I'm based in Atlanta. Can you live off that in that part of New York? $200,000 or $700,000 or $70,000 or $70,000? I didn't talk to the individual employees. I just able to talk to the district officials, superintendent, assistants, supertenants, some of their spokespeople, but I'm not an actual clock with, say, the PE teacher and see if he could get by on $70,000 or $200,000 total pay package. Right, right. And it may be a little tough even here in Atlanta to get by on 60,000, depending on how big your family is, I suppose. But, yeah, but I mean, the higher end of what you found, clearly that's a whole lot more than most teachers and support staff and administrators are making across the country. Right.

Yeah. There's no doubt. Like if school districts is no shock that where the employees make a lot of money, the school districts spend more per child than those that say in upstate New York where they don't, well, there's more typical salaries. It's 50 to 60, 70,000 dollars per t-shirt. So it does have an effect. It's just a question of you don't go from, say, $1,000 to $100,000 to $100,000,

per student each school year just on school teachers alone, on school employee salaries alone. It's other factors, bigger factors, been involved. I see, I see. Yeah. But very, very interesting, nonetheless. Yes. Very good discussion to have with family members over Thanksgiving.

Right, right. And I hope it's going to be a very nice Thanksgiving. But very, very good work, and thanks for being with us. This has been America's Talking. find Mark's story posted on thecentersquare.com. I'm Johnny Edwards, folks. Thanks for joining us.