MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Tennessee’s Shelby County school district headed into the 2014-15 school year with mammoth $105 million budget deficit.

On the surface, that may have not been a huge shock, since the district expected to lose around 30,000 students from the previous school year due to a merger with Memphis City schools and the establishment of several new charter schools in the area.

But the district had already downsized the previous year, cutting about 2,000 jobs from the payroll, according to media reports. As one news report put it, “the obvious cuts have already been made.”

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Yet the district still faced the need to cut another nine figures from the budget.

Shelby County Commissioner Mike Ritz was quoted as saying that he was struggling to understand how the district’s budget could be “that far out of balance,” according to the news report.

Perhaps Commissioner Ritz and other officials should have taken a closer look at the district payroll. They would have quickly learned that all the “obvious cuts” had not been made.

In Feb. 2014, at the same time the district was trying to figure out how to deal with its huge deficit, a total of 288 district employees were making more than $100,000 per year in straight salary. And a lot of them made a lot more than $100,000.

The single year total for all of their salaries was an incredible $29.1 million. That’s almost one-third of the huge budget deficit that was haunting the district.

At the top of the scale was Superintendent Dorsey Hopson, who pulled in a cool $269,000.

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Then came Chief Counsel Valerie Speakman, who made $188,500.

Tied for third on the list were Roderick Richmond, the chief academic officer, and Hitesh Haria, the chief of business operations, who both made $185,960.

Gerald Darling, the executive director of safety and security, was paid $160,000. Four others – Laura Link (chief human capital officer), Herchel Burton (chief of student services), Bradley Leon (chief innovation officer) and Alicia Lindsey (chief financial officer) – each made $151,900.

In 10th place on the easy living list was Chief of Staff Reginald Porter, who was paid $150,395.

While the 10 highest paid employees were top administrators in the district, the vast majority making over $100,000 – 181 employees – were building principals. The 25 highest paid principals all made $116,136 per year.

For those kind of salaries, the people of Shelby County certainly have the right to expect only the best results in terms of student academic achievement.

But the district’s accountability report from the Tennessee Department of Education for 2013-14 is a mixed bag, at best.

The district’s overall achievement rating was “achieve – not exemplary.” In other words, okay, but not great. It’s rating for closing the achievement gap between white and minority students was “miss – in need of subgroup improvement.”

In 11 academic measures, involving math, English and reading performance at various grade levels, as well as the graduation rate, the Shelby County district declined in six categories from the previous year and improved in five. Again, a very so-so performance.

Did that performance justify $29.1 million in salary for 288 administrators? Local taxpayers can decide for themselves.