Salaries, wages for Columbia School District 4 educators added to BND Public Pay Database
The salaries and wages of Columbia School District 4 teachers and administrators have been added to the Belleville News-Democrat’s Public Pay Database.
To view the BND’s Public Pay Database, go to www.bnd.com/publicpay.
The school district had four educators who earned $90,000 or more in the 2020-21 fiscal year, which ended on June 30.
The highest earner was Superintendent Christopher Grode, who was paid $108,333.40 in total wages, according to records of the latest annual figures available.
Brian Reeves, the principal of Columbia High School, was the second-highest earner at $106,022.25, the records show.
Courtney Castelli, the former assistant superintendent, was third with total wages of $98,191.69. Castelli has since taken a new job to be superintendent of Smithton School District 130.
The fourth highest earner was Jeanne Goacher with $91,948.50 in total wages. Goacher is the special education director for the district.
The fifth-highest earner was Angela Huels at $88,091.25 for serving as the principal of Columbia Middle School.
You can see the complete list of teachers and administrators by clicking on “Columbia School Dist. 4” in the index at the top of the BND Public Pay Database box. Select 2020 as the year and hit the search button.
To see a person’s title, click on the “details” link on the right side of the box. You also can click on the “sort by” box to organize your search in various ways, including by first name or last name.
The Columbia salaries do not include a school district attorney since the district does not hire an attorney as an employee. Instead, the district paid $49,522.50 to the Guin Mundorf law firm, which has four Midwestern offices, including one in Collinsville.
Also, the Columbia salaries listed do not include retirement and health benefits the district pays on behalf of employees. For example, the retirement benefits ranged from about $4,000 to a high of about $15,000 for most of the educators, according to records on the district’s website.
To see salaries from across the region, click on “All” in the Government box of the BND’s Public Pay Database.
The BND’s Public Pay Database goes back to 2011 with information primarily obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and public filings. The salary information does not always include insurance or benefits. Some records include detailed information on overtime and other pay, while for some districts that information was not readily available.
The database includes compensation for employees in most area governments, including cities, counties, townships, school districts and public colleges and universities. More pay records will be added as the BND receives salary data through open records requests.
This story was originally published February 21, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
