Recently, KSTP’s 5 INVESTIGATES published an explosive report detailing the contracts for every superintendent in Minnesota’s 30 largest school districts.
The 5 INVESTIGATES team submitted public records requests (occasionally along with cash) to gain access to superintendent salary data. They found that
The documents reveal eye-popping perks, monthly stipends, allowances, and a handful of creative ways to describe what most people know as a “bonus.”
The highest paid school superintendent in the state is Dr. David Law, overseeing the Minnetonka school district. He is paid $298,917 per year, with up to $59,783 a year in performance pay if he meets certain goals. Like at least 19 out of the 30 superintendents, Law also receives $1,000 per month for business use of his personal car.
No superintendent analyzed was paid less than $214,000, with most salaries ranging in the upper $200,000 range. While it’s understandable to pay more for a quality school leader, it’s helpful to see exactly how much districts are spending for their superintendent.
It begs the question: are these high salaried leaders creating equally high learning achievements?
To answer this question, I took the superintendents analyzed by 5 INVESTIGATES and organized them by district. I then found each district’s 2025 percentage of students who scored at or above grade level in reading by using the Minnesota Report Card.
Since some school superintendents might have begun their tenure with a struggling district, I compared the reading test scores from the superintendent’s hiring year with the district’s 2025 test scores. In this way, a particular district’s struggles or successes can be seen. Rising district reading scores are colored green; falling are colored in red.
Interestingly, almost two thirds of the superintendents began their tenure within the last five years, suggesting that superintendent retention within districts is an issue. Many superintendents have had previous stints as superintendents for different Minnesota districts.
As four superintendents were hired in the spring of 2025, a rising or falling district test performance under their leadership could not be analyzed.
Are reading scores declining or increasing under superintendent leadership?
Only three out of the thirty analyzed superintendents were able to raise their district’s reading scores over the time of their tenure. Minneapolis’ Dr. Lisa Sayles Adams (40.1% of students scoring at or above proficiency to 40.8%), Stillwater’s Dr. Michael Funk (58.7% to 61%), and the highest-paid superintendent in the state, Minnetonka’s David Law (73.3% to 74.6%) saw their district’s reading proficiency scores rise. These gains were incremental, as none of the three saw scores rise more than 2.3%. Regardless, these superintendents must be congratulated for their success.
Meanwhile, Minnesota’s teacher salaries declined nearly 4 percent from 2002 to 2020.
