Could we see more leaders like this please?

We are all aware of the decreasing budgets that public schools are dealing with these days. In a scenario seen across the country over the past few years, a Michigan school district found itself having to cut $800,000 from the school budget back in 2003. But what makes this district unique is the superintendent.

John Dardzinski had just received an almost perfect score on his annual evaluation and was due for a salary and merit raise of about $7,500. However, he declined as he could not justify accepting the pay raise while the district was dealing with such financial issues. See the story here.

We have all heard the stories of skyrocketing CEO pay. How if the minimum wage would have kept pace with CEO pay since 1990 it would currently be $23.50. You may even be familiar with stories such as this where United Airlines, three months before declaring bankruptcy, set aside $4.5 million in a protected trust for its CEO. Even though there are a lot of great CEOs doing a lot of great work, they often get overshadowed by these kinds of actions. And stories about educators such as John Dardzinski are even harder to come by.

The children's interest and the public interest have always come before Dardzinski's personal interest. He is now soon retiring. I'm sure he will be sorely missed.