Who makes the most money in the Wake County school system?
That's one of the questions that the Charlotte Observe looked at as part of a Sunday article on six-figures salaries in Wake and Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools. Wake had 99 employees making at least $100,000 with 60 of them being principals.
This compares to 103 Wake employees with six-figure salaries in 2010, 112 in 2009 and 99 in 2008.
Wake County school board members will spend their one-year anniversary since taking office by meeting behind closed doors today to interview candidates for the superintendent's position.
Whether board members anticipated a year ago that they'd be spending today trying to fill the superintendent's position depends on how long you thought Del Burns would stay on. Now board members hope to hire a permanent successor to Burns by January.
Today's meeting is scheduled to run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. They're meeting at the Hilton North Raleigh to better keep the process secret as they're not releasing names of candidates.
The Wake County school board's superintendent search committee is now in closed session looking at candidates and discussing salary and benefits packages.
The search firm of Heidrick & Struggles has been charged with bringing the top five to 10 applicants to the search committee. The committee will whittle down the list to three to five finalists for the full school board to review.
In addition, committee chairwoman Debra Goldman said they'd discuss today in closed session what the salary and benefits would be for the new superintendent.
UPDATE
School board member Chris Malone, a member of the board’s search committee, said they’ve narrowed down the list of top candidates but haven’t yet gotten down to naming finalists yet.
"It was an embarrassment of riches," Malone said of the top candidates identified by the committee. "We'd be lucky to have any of them."
School board chairman Ron Margiotta, who attended today's meeting, said he’s optimistic that they can hire a new superintendent by January.
Malone and Margiotta said all the applicants now being given strong consideration have both education and management experience but aren’t all superintendents. The board had eliminated the requirement that the superintendent be an educator.
No decision has been made yet on the compensation package.
The Wake County school board has reached a deal with Donna Hargens over how much additional money she'll get to serve as interim superintendent.
Under a deal signed June 1, Hargens received an extra $3,000 per month for March, April, May and June. She'll begin getting an extra $5,000 per month starting in July.
The post June increase in Hargens' monthly pay coincides with the official departure of Del Burns as superintendent. He's been on paid administrative leave since March.
How much is it worth it for the new Wake County school board majority to get rid of Superintendent Del Burns before June 30?
As noted in today's article, the board majority says it wants to work with him through the end of June 30. But there's another option available.
In Burns' contract, there's a provision that says that once he submits written notice of resignation the board can choose to unilaterally terminate him immediately. (The contract I've posted is the original from 2006 but school board attorney Ann Majestic said the language is still there.)
School board candidate Cathy Truitt is revising her account of being asked if she'd support firing Supt. Del Burns.
Truitt had said on WPTF on Sept. 24 that school board member Ron Margiotta had asked her in a vetting interview if she'd support a motion to fire Burns. Truitt said Wednesday that she was asked that question but she's not sure if Margiotta was the questioner.
Truitt said that at several candidate vetting interviews she was asked the same question. The question was whether she would support firing Asst. Supt. Chuck Dulaney.
The school board accepted Supt. Del Burns' request today to not accept an automatic three-percent raise.
Under Burns' contract, he's guranteed a raise of three percent each year. His request means that he won't get an $8,190 raise on his $273,000 base salary for the coming fiscal year.
The board can still choose to give Burns a raise later this year when it reviews his performance. Last year, the board gave him a 1-percent raise on top of his automatic one.
Some other superintendents, such as Paul Gorman in Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Maurice Green in Guilford County, have also asked their boards to not give them automatic raises this year because of the economic conditions.
Del Burns is no longer the highest-paid superintendent in the state.
The Charlotte Observer is reporting today that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Peter Gorman got a $18,200 bonus and $7,150 raise on Tuesday. That lifts Gorman's total package to $320,350, above the $312,790 that Burns got earlier this month.
Gorman also got a perk that Burns doesn't have. At Gorman's request, he got a new clause in his contract promising to provide “reasonable security measures” to him and his family in case of “public controversy” or any other reason.
While some might complain about Superintendent Del Burns' new salary, it's actually comparable with those paid in school districts of a similar size.
As noted in today's article, the school board raised Burns' salary by 4 percent to $273,000. His total annual compensation is $312,790.
Burns' new salary is higher than the $260,000 paid to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Peter Gorman. But Gorman could still earn more because he also gets $35,000 a year for retirement and can earn a performance bonus of up to $26,000.
The school board has just announced Superintendent Del Burns' new contract.
The board voted to give Burns a raise of 4 percent. They tacked one percent on the 3 percent automatic raise he receives annually.
This $10,500 raise means he'll get a base salary of $273,000. With his benefits, his total annual compensation package will be $312,790.
