USD 334 Southern Cloud, with only 146 students and 41 employees last year, is one of the smallest school districts in Kansas but three of the 13 highest-paid employees belong to the 
same family. Superintendent Roger Perkins was paid $108,030 last year, his son Ryan Perkins, the Industrial Technology teacher, was paid $46,570 and his wife Jolana was paid $41,306 as the school secretary.
The district’s response to the Open Records request submitted by the Sentinel’s owner, Kansas Policy Institute, shows Roger Perkins also receives fully paid family health insurance, valued at $23,463.
At $41,306, school secretary Jolana Perkins was paid more than most of the 26 teachers in Southern Cloud. Two Social Studies teachers were paid a little over $50,000 and seven teachers, including her son Ryan, were paid between $41,380 and $49,800.
The remaining 17 teachers were paid less than the school secretary, but this is by no means a unique situation. USD 500 Kansas City, one of the districts that sued claiming to be underfunded, pays some of its custodians more than the average teacher pay for the district.
The electrician foreman was paid over $109,000 – more than double the average teacher pay of $53,117. The carpenter foreman received more than $92,000 and an asbestos inspector was paid $87,000.
Two head custodians were paid more than $80,000 and the district had 85 custodians who were paid more than $50,000.
The complete payroll listing for Southern Cloud is available at KansasOpenGov.org.
This is the first year KPI added Southern Cloud to the list of district payroll reports, which now totals 30 districts.
Southern Cloud is small, at just 146 students enrolled, but not the smallest district. That honor goes to USD 468 Healy in Lane County, with only 44 students. Kansas had five districts with fewer than 100 students last year and there were 31 districts with fewer than 200 students.
The other district in Cloud County, USD 333 Concordia, had 1,077 students enrolled.