08/20/2026
Dearest Citizens,
Apparently, the six-figure club at USD 475 is not suffering from an enrollment problem. Using the 2025 published payroll numbers available to us, USD 475 Geary County shows 34 employees receiving $100,000 or more in total pay, while USD 383 Manhattan-Ogden shows 19.
Normally, comparing school districts requires enough caveats to qualify as light construction. Enrollment differs, budgets differ, staffing models differ, programs differ, and someone inevitably arrives clutching a demographic spreadsheet like it contains the nuclear codes.
This comparison is considerably less slippery. USD 475 reports 7,327 students, while Manhattan reports 6,947, a difference of just 380 students.
USD 475’s total payroll is approximately $66.7 million, compared with approximately $63.9 million in Manhattan. Payroll per student works out to about $9,106 for USD 475 and $9,196 for USD 383 Manhattan-Ogden, meaning Manhattan actually spends slightly more payroll per student while somehow managing to maintain a six-figure guest list that is 15 names shorter.
And now the casserole has started bubbling.
Geary County has about 5% more students than Manhattan, but approximately 79% more employees receiving $100,000 or more in the published payroll. USD 475’s 34 six-figure employees account for roughly $4.05 million in reported total pay, compared with approximately $2.28 million for Manhattan’s 19.
Before anyone begins furiously typing an email with “CONTEXT” in the subject line, yes, we know.
Total pay is not necessarily base salary, job duties differ, some positions may include stipends or additional responsibilities, and the two districts are not required to organize themselves identically.
There. We found the nuance and put it somewhere safe. Unfortunately, nuance does not make 34 turn into 19.
That is the actual question here. Why does USD 475 have 34 people crossing the $100,000 threshold when a neighboring district with nearly the same enrollment, nearly the same total payroll, and nearly the same payroll cost per student has 19?
At the top of USD 475’s published numbers is Superintendent Reginald Eggleston at $222,420, while the data also lists former Associate Superintendent Debra Gustafson at $190,857.
We are emphasizing former because these are the 2025 published numbers we are working with, not a live employee directory, and appearing in the dataset does not mean every person listed still holds the same title today.
The average compensation among the six-figure employees in the two districts is not dramatically different, which makes this comparison even more interesting.
The headline is not that USD 475 pays every high earner wildly more than Manhattan does— the headline is that USD 475 has a whole lot more people making the list.
Manhattan apparently booked a table for 19. USD 475 called ahead and reserved the banquet room.
Maybe there is an entirely reasonable explanation. USD 475 may have additional specialized positions, federally funded roles, stipends, extra duties, or an administrative structure that simply puts more employees above the $100,000 mark.
Wonderful. A perfectly reasonable explanation should survive the terrifying ordeal of being explained to the public.
This is also where the people standing in classrooms every day are allowed to notice the furniture arrangement.
No, eliminating 15 six-figure positions would not automatically produce a tidy stack of teacher raises, and nobody with functioning arithmetic is making that argument.
The issue is priorities.
Compensation structures do not descend from the heavens on stone tablets. Districts decide how positions are structured, which responsibilities command higher compensation, how many employees occupy those positions, and where limited payroll dollars ultimately land.
So when USD 475 has 34 six-figure employees and a similarly sized neighboring district has 19, teachers and taxpayers are perfectly entitled to wonder whether some of that compensation capacity could have been directed closer to the classroom.
That question gets considerably louder whenever the people doing the boots-on-the-ground work are told that budgets are tight, resources are limited, or there simply is not enough room for additional compensation.
Apparently, the budget does have room— the more interesting question is which rooms USD 475 has chosen to furnish.
None of this means administrators, directors, specialists, or other highly skilled employees should not earn competitive salaries.
Running a school district is not volunteer work, and qualified professionals are generally not accepting payment in applause, jean days, and a Freddy’s coupon.
But when two neighboring districts have nearly the same enrollment, nearly the same total payroll, and nearly the same payroll spending per student, yet one has 15 additional employees above $100,000, asking how that happened is not an attack on public education.
It is a payroll question.
Maybe every position is essential. Maybe the funding sources explain it. Maybe USD 475 has responsibilities Manhattan does not. Maybe there is a beautifully organized binder somewhere containing an explanation so reasonable that we will all nod politely and go home.
Until somebody opens the binder, however, the 2025 published numbers are sitting there being inconvenient.
Manhattan has 19 people in the six-figure club. USD 475 has 34, and when teachers are expected to understand why compensation dollars only stretch so far, the district should probably be prepared to explain why they appear to stretch considerably farther in certain directions.
– Lady Junction ❤️💋
PS: What do you think? Is there a staffing or funding explanation that reasonably accounts for USD 475 having 34 employees at $100,000 or more compared with Manhattan’s 19, or should teachers and taxpayers be asking whether more payroll dollars could have been placed closer to the classroom?
TLDR: 👀The 2025 published payroll numbers show 34 USD 475 employees receiving $100,000 or more in total pay compared with 19 in USD 383 Manhattan-Ogden. The districts are remarkably similar in enrollment and overall payroll, and Manhattan actually spends slightly more payroll per student. This does not prove anyone is overpaid or that those dollars could simply be converted into teacher raises, but it does raise a fair question about why USD 475’s six-figure roster is so much larger and whether its compensation priorities put enough money near the classroom.
Gen Z/A TLDR: 💅USD 475 and Manhattan are basically payroll twins until the six-figure list walks in and ruins the matching outfits. USD 475 has 34 people at $100K+, while Manhattan has 19, despite almost identical payroll spending per student. Nobody is saying $100K automatically equals sus, but when teachers keep hearing that money is tight and the VIP section somehow has 15 extra chairs, the budget priorities are absolutely giving “explain the lore.” If the answer is normal, cute. Drop the receipts.
