"Cut the administrators and save the schools!" Great idea. Here are the 25 highest-paid people in Olathe Public Schools. Flip the switches, cut whoever you want, and see how close you get to the $12 million a year the closures save.
Nobody's been cut yet. The schools are still closing.
2025 pay as published by OpenPayrolls, rounded to the dollar. Salary only; benefits not included. Names and pay are public record. To be clear, none of these people caused the shortfall; the point is that cutting them doesn't fix it. The Chief Academic Officer position was eliminated in 2025-26, so it's already part of the district's earlier cuts.
"Just cut administration" isn't a new idea. It's what the district has been doing for the past six years, much of it through retirements, attrition and consolidating jobs.
Cut from the budget over the past six years.
Positions eliminated over those six years.
District-level jobs cut in 2025-26 alone, including the Chief Academic Officer.
Fewer K-5 teachers, without raising class sizes.
Cut from school and district budgets.
Still needed every year. That's what the closures are for.
Figures from Superintendent Brent Yeager's remarks at the Sept. 22 public hearing, as reported by Spectrum News, and district statements reported by KCTV5.
Cut every one of them and you save about $4.6 million. That's under 40% of the gap, and next fall nobody's running payroll, the high schools have no principals, and special education has no director. The district already cut about $25 million and 270 positions over six years, including 30 district-level jobs last year. The big savings come from the buildings, which is why the buildings are closing.