Wait, it gets better. Philly school superintendent gets almost $500,000 annually.

[madfloridian]

That is even more than DC's Michelle Rhee.

What's more, Arlene Ackerman just got a $65,000 bonus.

Ackerman gets $65,000 performance bonus

Philadelphia Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman has been awarded a $65,000 performance bonus, an official confirmed Monday night. The bonus, awarded by the School Reform Commission, is on top of Ackerman's $325,000 salary. She became the head of the nation's eighth-largest school district in June 2008.

Including perks such as the bonus, life insurance, and pension, Ackerman is paid almost $500,000 annually.

She gets the same health insurance as other district managers and gets raises equal to those given to district teachers. She gets 34 days of vacation and can trade up to four for cash annually. She will be paid for any unused vacation time when she leaves the district.

Ackerman also receives a BlackBerry and a cell phone, plus a laptop, printer, and fax machine to use at home. She also gets a district-paid car.

If Ackerman stays through next June, she will earn an extra $100,000. Her contract expires in 2013.

Dr. Ackerman is also a Broad Superintendent.

School District of Philadelphia

Dr. Ackerman also is Superintendent in Residence of Los Angeles-based Broad Center, where she facilitates and directs the Broad Superintendents Academy. The Academy is a ten-month executive management program designed to prepare CEOs and senior executives from business, government, and education backgrounds to lead urban public school systems.

Interestingly enough she last month created a new job position in her department.

Ackerman creates new 'chief' position at $180,000

Superintendent Arlene Ackerman has created a new high-level post in her administration and hired Leroy Nunery, a former executive at Edison Schools and a finalist for Ackerman's position when she was hired nearly two years ago.

Nunery will earn more than Mayor Nutter - a whopping $180,000 a year - as chief of institutional advancement and strategic partnerships. His catch-all job description involves fundraising, promoting outside partnerships, and revamping the Intermediate Unit (IU) to provide better and more organized technical assistance to both District-operated and charter schools.

As a consultant last year, Nunery helped Ackerman develop the Renaissance Schools plan, which is engaged in the "turnaround" of low-performing schools primarily through bringing in outside managers and converting them to charters

That last sentence reminded me that many Philly charters are under investigation by the city controller...and I hear the investigation is spreading to the national level now.

City Controller Alan Butkovitz's investigation of 13 Philadelphia charter schools found repeated examples of complex real estate arrangements in which charters leased or rented facilities from related non-profit organizations.

"The way the charter law is written and not enforced--there is a gigantic loophole through which people can profiteer," Butkovitz said. "This is not supposed to be a vehicle for maximizing profit for operators and related parties."

Butkovitz began his special fraud investigation of charters several months after The Inquirer reported allegations of financial mismanagement and conflicts of interest at Philadelphia Academy Charter School in April 2008.

His staff has been sharing information with the U.S. Attorney's Office, which is conducting a criminal investigation of at least nine area charter schools, according to sources with knowledge of the probe.