How much should the partnership president earn?

One of the panel’s first tasks is to select a president. A search committee formed this past winter has whittled a field of 261 candidates down to two finalists. A selection is expected in early March.

The board budgeted $247,500 in December as “anticipated annual compensation” for the president. But Fasano, Klarides and Looney all say they’re now being asked by others within the partnership to authorize a higher salary. Although none of the leaders specified a number, sources said the new salary would exceed $300,000.

More importantly, according to Looney, Klarides and Fasano, higher pay would elevate the partnership president’s compensation equal to — or greater than — that of the school superintendents in Connecticut’s largest cities.

Klarides said Wednesday that the $247,500 level targeted in December “is within the range that I think is reasonable.”

Legislative leaders noted that the $247,500 figure was already something of a compromise.

On the one hand, many Connecticut superintendents oversee sizable budgets, manage districts with hundreds of teachers, administrators and other staff, and must ensure that curriculum development, staff evaluation, building, ground maintenance and financial management all proceed properly.

In Bridgeport, Connecticut’s largest city, Superintendent Michael Testani oversees annual education expenditures in excess of $300 million, according to the state Office of Policy and Management’s Municipal

Fiscal Indicators report. He earns $244,000 per year.

Hartford’s superintendent is paid $260,000 and oversees a budget of $351 million. New Haven’s interim superintendent is paid $225,000 and oversees a budget of $260 million.

Communities with budgets similar to that of the partnership, such as Wethersfield and Avon, pay their superintendents $185,000 and $220,000, respectively.

“I was always concerned over that number,” Fasano said of the $247,500 target figure, “but I felt that number was the absolute top we should go unless we were given some super extraordinary candidate.”

Looney, Klarides and Fasano all acknowledged that because the partnership anticipated some former superintendents would apply for the president’s post they wanted to offer competitive pay that would attract good candidates.

But there’s another side to the argument as well.

The partnership president also would oversee fundraising efforts that don’t fall to school superintendents. One of the goals set by Dalio Philanthropies and state officials when the partnership was launched was to find other private groups that would help expand a $40 million-peryear grant program into $60 million.

“It’s critical that we find the right person for this job because we believe Connecticut can and must do better for its disconnected youth,” said Erik Clemons, chairman of the partnership’s Board of Directors. “That requires the best leadership, and I’m confident we will agree on the selection of the partnership’s CEO and a salary near the initially approved placeholder of $247,500 in time for the next meeting.”