Waste of the Day: Pay For Absent School Chief

Topline: A Missouri school superintendent made out with perhaps the best rate of pay in the history of public schooling. Salary: $249,167. Hours worked: Zero.

The school district asked him to resign immediately, but still paid him

The Francis Howell R-III School District asked Dr. Mike Dominguez to resign before his first day on the job, but paid him a full year of salary to avoid a potential lawsuit.

A state audit concluded the district did not perform a proper background check before hiring Dominguez, which could have identified concerns about his “competency” and “ability to lead the district.”

Key facts: Dominguez had previously been superintendent of the Garden City Public School District in Kansas, but he resigned abruptly in 2024. First Alert 4 later reported that Garden City had paid $233,000 in a settlement to its deputy superintendent to resolve “administrative complaints” against Dominguez. Another school employee alleged that many officials resigned because Dominguez “did not respect the staff.”

The Francis Howell school district was not aware of any of that when they hired Dominguez, according to the audit, even though the info was “easily searchable online.” The board never questioned why Dominguez had no letter of recommendation from his previous employer.

Francis Howell officials later conferred with the Garden City district and decided they did not want to hire Dominguez. But by then, Dominguez had already signed his contract.

He threatened to sue

Francis Howell could have avoided a payout by firing Dominguez for cause, but Dominguez said he would file a potentially more costly lawsuit for wrongful termination. The district instead decided to give Dominguez $229,167 in exchange for a release from all liability. Dominguez also earned $20,000 while on paid administrative leave during the dispute.

Dominguez was selected by a private search firm that never flagged issues with his candidacy. The audit argued there was no “thoughtful process” that went into selecting the search firm. The school did not use a competitive bidding process, and there was no written explanation for why the firm was chosen.

The search firm was paid $40,000.

Background: Dominguez’ payout makes him nearly the highest-paid employee in Francis Howell’s history. Former superintendent Kenneth Roumpos made $250,000 in 2025, Open the Books’ database shows. 

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Critical quote:

State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick said in a press release:

The enormous amount of money paid out to a man who never worked a day for the district certainly raised a lot of questions for taxpayers and numerous red flags for my office. Given what our investigation has uncovered, I firmly believe the district could have and should have identified the concerns that led to its separation from Dr. Dominguez prior to hiring him in the first place.

Summary: A $249,000 salary typically requires a full year of work, but that is not always the case when local governments are involved.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.