Superintendent Jazz Parks takes home $259,840 a year.
The district's lowest-paid workers, part-time noon hour supervisors who watch over lunch and recess, earn $4,290. Between those poles sit more than 2,600 Ann Arbor Public Schools employees whose salaries were made public through a Freedom of Information Act request by MLive/The Ann Arbor News this spring.
The salary records were published as AAPS teachers marked their 226th day without a contract and the district navigates a $4.27 million budget gap.
Who earns what
Parks' four assistant superintendents each earn $175,849: Bernie Rice (physical properties), Shonta Langford (human resources), Concetta Lewis (special education) and Dawn Linden (instruction). About 80 administrators and department heads make more than $100,000, roughly 3% of all employees listed for the 2025-26 school year.
Building principals range from $108,942 for Bach Elementary's Matthew Jones to $145,914 for Skyline High School's Casey Elmore.
Only one in ten teachers earns above $90,000. The highest teacher salary is $96,189, shared by three educators: Margaret Goodly, a Burns Park Elementary first-grade teacher with a doctorate from Michigan State; Emily Theriault-Kimmey, a King Elementary third-grade teacher who won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching in 2012; and Nathaniel Powell, a Pioneer High School media specialist with 20 years in the U.S. Air Force.
The bulk of teachers, well over 500, earn between $80,000 and $89,000. About 40 teachers make between $45,000 and $50,000. Teaching assistants and paraeducators earn as low as $22,000. Board of Education members receive a $1,560 annual stipend.
The contract standoff
Teachers have worked under an expired contract since Jan. 1, the first time since 1994 that has happened in Ann Arbor. On Monday, April 27, AAEA members rejected a proposed tentative agreement by 99.6%, with 97% of the membership voting. That deal offered a 1.5% salary raise and included class size increases and cuts to planning time.
"The biggest raise I've had, and I'm a thirty-six year veteran here in Ann Arbor, was [a] 2.5 percent raise in 2006, so twenty years ago," AAEA President Fred Klein told the Ann Arbor Observer in January, when the contract dispute was just weeks old. "It's just unsustainable."
A comparative analysis published by the Ann Arbor Observer found AAPS has the second-highest per-pupil foundation allowance among comparable Michigan districts at $11,051 but the lowest starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor's degree. Plymouth-Canton, with roughly the same enrollment and a $1,001 lower foundation allowance, pays starting teachers $3,370 more.
Budget pressure
The district projects $312.8 million in revenue against more than $317 million in spending for 2026-27. CFO Anté Britten called the projected fund balance "dangerously low" in a June budget presentation, noting it would fall to 5.12%, just above the 5% threshold that triggers mandatory state oversight and well below the board's 9% policy target.
On Aug. 5, the district requested fact-finding through the Michigan Employment Relations Commission. The AAEA said in an Aug. 6 statement that its bargaining team was "blindsided" by the move. A closed negotiation session was held Aug. 12 at the Earhart Administration Building, according to board records.
No next bargaining date or MERC hearing has been publicly announced.
