The new Boston schools chief has agreed to a five-year deal with the city’s school committee that will pay him $257,000 a year.
The contract, which the school committee unanimously approved on Wednesday night, came just a week after Chang, a high-level administrator in the Los Angeles Unified School District where he oversees some of the district’s lowest-performing schools, was selected as superintendent.
Chang will be eligible to receive performance bonuses of up to 4 percent, the Associated Press reported. He could also receive $2,500 a month toward moving and other transitional living costs and up to $500 for transportation, according to The Boston Globe.
The last superintendent, Carol Johnson, was paid $267,000 annually—$10,000—more than Chang, the Globe reported. Johnson, however, did not take a pay raise during her tenure, the paper said. Chang, who for the last three years has been serving as an instructional superintendent in L.A. Unified’s Intensive Support and Innovation Center, has never been a superintendent of a public school system.
Chang has been making the rounds with Boston media since he was selected from a crop of four finalists (one dropped out at the 11th hour) to lead the schools. He sat down with The Boston Globe last week to discuss his priorities and his administrative approach.
The Globe laid out some of the challenges he faces when he takes over the system, which include “wide gaps of achievement among students of different backgrounds, dozens of low-achieving schools, deteriorating facilities, and operating costs that have been rising faster than revenues,” according to the paper.
Although Chang is officially set to begin his duties on July 1, the Associated Press reported that he will start working full-time in mid-April alongside John McDonough, the district’s longtime financial officer who has been serving as interim superintendent since Johnson’s retirement.