HAMILTON, Ohio – In January 2016, JournalNews.com posed an important question:

“Are schools keeping people from moving to Hamilton?”

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The headline was referring to the Hamilton, Ohio school district, which has been some rather unimpressive grades on its state report card in recent years.

“The district’s 2013-2014 Report Card from the state contained mostly C’s, D’s and F’s, with a B in kindergarten through third-grade literacy improvement,” the news report said. “Among those grades, the district received a C and D in the achievement category; a D and C based on graduation rates; and two F’s, a D and a C in the area of how much progress the district is making.”

The story went on to quote a city official as saying “one of the biggest factors that keep families from buying homes in the city is the schools.”

Ouch.

So who’s responsible for a situation where a school district is so reputably bad that prospective residents have been shying away?

The CEO is Superintendent Anthony Orr, who was new to the district in April 2015. A persuasive argument could be made that he hasn’t had time to implement significant changes, but that’s a fair expectation for the future, considering the amount of money the district has invested in him.

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In the 2015-16 fiscal year, Orr was paid a base salary of $144,023.91, according to information provided by the district.

The district also spent $13,554.25 in health benefits for Orr, and made a $21,157.12 retirement pension contribution on his behalf.

That brought his total compensation for the year to at least $178,735 — $34,712 more than his base salary. Benefits are expensive for taxpayers, even in underperforming school districts.

How much do the Hamilton teachers make, in straight salary and benefits? We asked the district for that information, but our request was denied.

“We do not have a payroll report for just the 627.19 FTE teachers,” the district wrote in a letter to EAGnews.org.

The letter went on to say that “the district does not have a legal obligation to provide information a requester seeks to obtain; a record must be requested. We are not required to create records.”

Note the words “not required.” School officials could create a record of teacher compensation, and with modern spreadsheet technology, it probably wouldn’t take much work or time.

Perhaps they are not eager for the public to know how much teachers are paid for not-so-great results. Perhaps that information would keep even more people from moving to Hamilton.