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The statewide debate over teacher salaries is escalating, as an Albany-based think tank has publicly posted names and total wages of nearly 2,500 employees in two of Long Island's highest-paying school systems.

One surprise for think-tank analysts was that two Central Islip teachers last school year earned more than $200,000 each in base salaries and other compensation. Many teachers get extra pay for coaching and advising student clubs, and those who retire usually get payouts for unused sick days as well.

"You're talking big money beyond the base rate, and that's sort of surprising for a teacher," said Tim Hoefer, a spokesman for the Empire Center for New York State Policy, the conservative think tank that posted the pay data.

One of those teachers, who has taught science in Central Islip since 1967, told Newsday the new postings don't reflect the extra hours he put into coaching and other extracurricular activities. In addition to his teaching salary last year of $146,587, he also received $55,455 in stipends for coaching three swim teams and supervising a summer Learn to Swim Program.

"The thing that they don't fully understand is that I was involved in so many activities," he said. He has been out of the classroom since February recovering from heart surgery, but hopes to return in June to finish the school year before retiring.

On Thursday, the Empire Center posted salary information for school employees in Central Islip and East Islip, and for two districts upstate. Data were supplied by districts, which are legally required to make such information public. The research group eventually plans to add similar information for all other school districts on its Web site: www.seethroughny.net.

According to the Empire Center, a total of 254 teachers in Central Islip and East Islip - 27 percent of the instructional staffs - earned more than $100,000 last year. A Newsday survey in 2001 set the figures then at 15 percent of teachers and other professionals in Central Islip, 13 percent in East Islip - at the time, the highest percentages on the Island.

Compensation for teachers averaged $81,853 in Central Islip, $89,595 in East Islip, the center reported. A state commission has calculated the Islandwide median salary for teachers and other school professionals at $77,290.

Empire Center staffers acknowledge the pay data has its limitations, because not all school districts present figures in the same way. Even so, staffers say the new postings provide the public with useful information in its efforts to judge whether school employee compensation is reasonable or not, in advance of May's school budget voting.

Staffers add that the four districts posted were the first to respond in full to requests for pay data, which went out to 37 districts statewide, including 20 on Long Island.

Carl Korn, a spokesman for New York State United Teachers, a statewide union, described the Empire Center's focus on school salaries as a reflection of its outspoken opposition to higher taxes. Korn noted that the Empire Center is an arm of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a leading conservative research-policy group with a board dominated by wealthy investment and business leaders.

"Our agenda is moving the state forward by raising test scores, and their agenda seems to be attacking public employees and singling them out," Korn said.

Teacher salaries are an issue of increasing debate statewide and on the Island, due to rising public concerns over school property taxes. Salaries and benefits for teachers and other school professionals account for 56 percent of school costs on the Island. In July, the Empire Center weighed in on that debate by posting salary contracts for all the state's local teacher unions and school superintendents.