Topeka ? Women are increasingly being appointed to lead schools and school districts in Kansas, new statistics show.

The average principal or superintendent in the state is still male, but women account for 37.9 percent of state principals this year, up from 9.3 percent during the 1984-85 school year, according to the Kansas Association of School Boards’ annual administrator salary survey.

Statewide, 11 percent of public school superintendents are women, compared with 3.6 percent in the 1993-94 school year, the survey said.

Statistically, the average Kansas public school principal is a 47-year-old man with a master’s degree earning $71,981 a year in salary and benefits. The average superintendent is a 52-year-old man with a master’s degree and enough additional college hours to receive an education specialist degree, earning $91,727 a year in salary and benefits.

Although that is changing, the change is happening slowly. This year, 167 of the state’s high schools are led by male principals compared with 21 female principals.

Women are more likely to head elementary schools – where they outnumber men 292 to 236 this year.