Fort Bend ISD’s top earners made nearly $5 million

FORT BEND COUNTY – Fort Bend Independent School District’s top 25 earners collected base salaries totaling almost $5 million in the 2023-24 school year, according to staffing data from the Texas Education Agency and the Houston Chronicle. Two superintendents occupied the top-paid spots for the 80,000-student district last school year: Christie Whitbeck, who served as superintendent for the first half of the 2023-24 school year until her sudden departure from the district in December 2023, and her successor, Marcell Smith, who took over in January 2024. Smith’s starting base salary of $410,000 exceeded Whitbeck’s salary at the time of her departure by over $30,000. The move to the Fort Bend ISD was a lucrative one for Smith, who previously served as superintendent of 12,000-student Duncanville ISD in Dallas County until December 2023.