Superintendent and Principal Salary Request

As part of my Journalism 220 class at IUP and in an effort to learn how the Open Records Act works, I have sent a request to my high school, Conemaugh Valley Jr./Sr. High School. I inquired about the salaries that the Superintendent and the Principal receive.

After several weeks of waiting, I received a polite letter in return, signed by the superintendent, that disclosed the information. As it turns out, the superintendent, William H. Rushin, gets an annual salary of $105,000/year. The principal, James F. Cekada, gets $75,780/year.

While it seems that this amount is similar to some found by my classmates, I wonder how many students those schools have. I am unable to find a total student population, but I graduated in 2006 with a class of 69 students. Throughout my high school career, many of our books were outdated and in deplorable condition, sometimes ten years old and missing the hard cover completely. I recall a few occasions when the janitors came into our classrooms with buckets because the rainwater was leaking through the roof onto the floor.

With all of this in mind, why are the superintendent and principal making so much of our taxpayer money? Do they truly need or deserve it? Are there better uses for it? Things may have changed for the better since I was a student, but it's only been two and a half years.