Database: Latest educators' salaries, pensions in NY
ALBANY -- Forty-two retired educators in New York earned pensions that exceeded $200,000 in 2015, and about 200 educators earned more than $200,000 in salaries in the last school year, state records show.
The highest payouts, though, were not indicative of the average salary and pension of New York's teachers and administrators.
The average salary in the 2014-15 school year was about $60,000 for the nearly 300,000 full- and part-time educators in New York, a review of records by Gannett's Albany Bureau from the state's Teachers Retirement System showed.
DATABASE: New York teacher pensions
DATABASE: Are you eligible for a rebate check?
The average pension in the 2015 calendar year was about $43,000 for the roughly 153,000 retirees in the system.
"Competitive salaries are at the heart of what makes a strong educational system," Carl Korn, a spokesman for the New York State United Teachers union, said last May. "They are what help to attract and retain the best teachers for New York students."
The average salary was up 1.2 percent from the 2013-14 school year and up 8.5 percent over the last five years.
The highest pension went to James Feltman, the retired superintendent of Commack Union Free Schools on Long Island. He received $326,214 last year, state records obtained through a Freedom of Information request showed.
The highest salary was also on Long Island: Joyce Bisso, who retired in June as superintendent in the Hewlett-Woodmere district, earned $625,214 last school year.
In the Lower Hudson Valley, the highest pension last year went to Nancy Taddiken, the retired superintendent in Edgemont. She received a $236,180 pension last year, records show.
The highest salary in the region was $359,325 to Louis Wool, the Harrison superintendent.
The average salary and pension varied by county.
Westchester and Putnam counties had the highest average salaries in New York last school year: $90,709 and $85,193, respectively. Rockland County ranked fourth at $81,188.
Suffolk and Nassau County, though, had slightly larger average pensions than Westchester and Putnam -- with an average of more than $60,000 in retirement payments in 2015 for both Long Island counties.