Charter CEO Compensation Has A Surprising Outlier

I was looking for something for my posts on co-location, when I ran into a very strange data point that I thought I would highlight. Since Charters are non profits, they have to file 990 forms with IRS, which detail the pay of their officers. I was snooping around looking for something else, but I ran into one officer that seems to be paid significantly higher than others:

Source: IRS (as compiled by Foundation Center 990 Finder)

Celerity’s CEO was paid $471,842 in 2013 (so this data is 3 years old already). It startled me, so I looked up the take home pay for other CEOs of other charter networks as well as LAUSD. Celerity just stands out high above the rest. It should be noted that Alliance also heavily compensates its CEO, but let’s stick with Celerity, because it get’s stranger…Between 2011 and 2013, the compensation for Celerity’s Chief Executive grew by more than $200,000, which is about a 74% increase in two years. Meanwhile, the median increase for the other Chief Officers was $40,000 or 19%.

To put this in perspective, we could compare the salary of the executives to the asset value of the organization they run. After all, it may go to reason that if you run a large and powerful organization, you may deserve more pay. However….

Celerity stands out even further in this metric – In 2013, the CEO took home 2.18% of the value of the assets of the entire nonprofit organization.

I can understand that CEOs of charter schools need to be compensated well in order to attract talent and to incentivize success – but Celerity seems to be frosting that cake with a few extra layers.

3 Replies to “Charter CEO Compensation Has A Surprising Outlier”

  1. Not all charter schools are non-profits.

    1. True, but all of these are nonprofits. That’s why they submitted 440s

  2. […] on the other hand, seem to have pretty consistent success with the K-8 model.  (Even if they pay their CEO $470,000). I think it is also important to mention Gabriella Charter, which is at the top of K-8 schools for […]

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