Given a strained economy with skyrocketing fuel prices and homeowner foreclosures that threaten property tax rolls, plus pressures to satisfy mandates for improved student achievement, district administrators must tighten belts, juggle priorities, and find creative solutions to situations that might challenge them as never before. Teachers are being laid off or not replaced, and enrichment programs are being cut. But it's a labor of love as top administrators find their jobs fulfilling and worthy. They go to work committed to making the most of the resources they have even though they could earn more in the private sector. This article reports on the just released annual salary survey, "Salaries and Wages Paid Professional and Support Personnel in Public Schools, 2007-08," published by Educational Research Service (ERS), a nonprofit organization, which reveals that increases in the 2007-2008 mean of average salaries for superintendents as well as other top school managers, counselors and librarians, not including bonuses and other perks, were at least 5 percent over last year for superintendents and directors of instructional services, finances, and technology. Increases over 10 years ago ranged between roughly 35 percent to 45 percent. Administrators further down the scale, including counselors and librarians, received increases 3 to 3.7 percent higher in 2007-2008 than in 2006-2007 and about 26 percent higher than in 1997-1998. This ERS survey reached 669 districts, which represents 1.1 million public school employees, including teachers, between October 2007 and February 2008.