Pittsburgh school board approves contract for former Tulsa

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Pittsburgh School Board on Wednesday approved a five-year contract making its new school chief the<br>highest-paid superintendent in Pennsylvania.<br><br>Five of nine board members

Wednesday, April 19th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Pittsburgh School Board on Wednesday approved a five-year contract making its new school chief the
highest-paid superintendent in Pennsylvania.

Five of nine board members overseeing the Pittsburgh School District approved the contract that would pay John Thompson
$175,000 annually. Four board members abstained, saying they were not adequately informed about the contract before it was presented for a vote on Wednesday.

The contract will be effective July 1.

Thompson, formerly superintendent in Tulsa, Okla., thanked board members and said he
would look forward to working with them.

The board postponed a scheduled contract vote last week to add a requirement to the contract that Thompson make a long-term
commitment to Pittsburgh.

The school district's last superintendent, Dale Frederick, left Pittsburgh to be the school chief in Mesa, Ariz., after less than two years.

Thompson will oversee 100 schools with 39,900 pupils in Pittsburgh. His salary exceeds the $165,000 earned by Philadelphia
Superintendent David Hornbeck, who oversees a district with five times more pupils than in Pittsburgh.

Thompson also will be paid more than superintendents in other larger districts in Tampa, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Denver, Atlanta
and San Diego.

Thompson worked in Oklahoma's largest school district in Tulsa, with 42,000 pupils, for nearly six years. He resigned that post on
March 16.