These are things I’m curious about: how much birthday parties are supposed to cost, where does all the leftover overpriced Erewhon food go if it doesn’t get eaten, and after back to school night this week: what does the head of school actually make?
The last one at least turns out to have an insanely straightforward answer. I forgot (you probably did, too), that private schools are nonprofits. Which means you can literally just google this.
So…I did. For all of them. (Fine. I didn't. Let’s be real. AI is a tool for this exact thing).
And now, you don’t have to. Because I put it all in one place. (You’re welcome).
How to look up your own school
Go to projects.propublica.org/nonprofits
Type the school’s name.
Open the most recent filing.
Scroll to the officer and key employee table.
You’ll see the head of school, the CFO, and usually the director of admissions and the director of advancement. Advancement means fundraising. You’ll also see total revenue and total expenses, which tells you whether the school is worth paying 50k a year to teach your kid basic math.
The list
1. Landis Green, Wildwood $787,023. School revenue $51.4M, finished the year $8.33M ahead.
2. Alona Hilary Scott, Buckley $672,824, or $974,709 counting benefits. School revenue $54.2M, finished $4.70M ahead.
3. Michael Riera, Brentwood $661,836. School revenue $75.0M, finished $2.06M down.
4. Lisa Rosenstein, The Willows $624,628, or $690,513 counting benefits. School revenue $25.3M, finished $3.11M ahead.
5. Mariama Richards, Crossroads $597,847. School revenue $78.0M, finished $5.89M ahead.
6. Damian Jones, Center for Early Education $579,140, or $610,528 counting benefits. School revenue $28.3M, finished $4.98M down.
7. Daniel Vorenberg, Mirman (former head) $528,311. School revenue $23.6M, finished $181K ahead.
8. Laura Konigsberg, Turning Point $496,593. School revenue $14.7M, finished $2.47M down.
9. Nola Rae Cronan, Carlthorp $480,990. School revenue $16.6M, finished $244K down.
10. Susannah Wolf, PS1 Pluralistic $472,140. School revenue $10.1M, finished $846K down.
11. Meera Ratnesar, Curtis $411,256, or $533,805 counting benefits. School revenue $31.0M, finished $8.13M ahead.
12. Rose Helm, John Thomas Dye $410,808, or $628,550 counting benefits. School revenue $26.9M, finished $7.56M ahead.
13. Margaret Procter, Echo Horizon $373,662, or $401,168 counting benefits. School revenue $10.2M, finished $912K ahead.
14. Melinda Tsapatsaris, Westland $373,600, or $414,123 counting benefits. School revenue $5.25M, finished $137K ahead.
15. Margarita Pagliai, Seven Arrows $361,928, or $391,928 counting benefits. School revenue $12.4M, finished $34K ahead.
16. Michael Maniska, LILA (former head) $326,467. School revenue $36.2M, finished $937K ahead.
17. Sarah Colmaire, Berkeley Hall $317,726. School revenue $12.5M, finished $703K ahead.
18. Marina Kheel, Mirman (head since July 2024) $225,389.
19. Dan Vorenberg, New Roads (head since July 2024) $223,846. School revenue $32.1M, finished $767K down.
20. Westside Waldorf No compensation reported for leadership. School revenue $1.71M, finished $114K ahead.
When you think about it, it’s actually incredibly impressive that Seven Arrows finished the year ahead at all. Their campus burned down in January. So did Village School’s, which is now financing a $40 million rebuild from a temporary campus in Santa Monica. So did Westside Waldorf’s, and they spent ten months teaching in park pavilions and canvas tents that flooded every time it rained, and still closed the year in the black. Seven Arrows brought in more money the year it lost its building than the year before it.
Meanwhile the schools that are down. Come on. Nobody burned anything of yours. You get like 50k a kid. Figure it out.