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.
Like Wake, CMS is also cutting back on the number of six-figure salaries. CMS had 85 this year, compared to 104 in 2010, 103 in 2009 and 90 in 2008.
As part of the report, the Observer also posted the top 20 salaries in both Wake and CMS. The top 20 in Wake are:
1. Superintendent Anthony Tata, $255,164.
2. Chief Academic Officer Donna Hargens, $148,965.
3. Chief Business Officer David Neter, $150,831.
4. Chief Facilities and Operations Officer Don Haydon Jr., $150,666.
5. Chief Area Superintendent Danny Barnes, $145,072.
6. Southeast Raleigh High Principal Beulah Wright, $141,757.
7. Southern Wake Area Superintendent Lloyd Gardner, $134,760.
8. Athens Drive High Principal William Crockett Jr., $130,969.
9. Panther Creek High Principal Rodney Nelson, $130,969.
10. Green Hope High Principal James Hedrick, $128,945.
11. Northern Wake Area Superintendent Ann Hooker, $128,343.
12. Southwestern Wake Area Superintendent Julye Mizelle, $127,246.
12. Assistant Superintendent (Evaluation and Research) David Holdzkom, $127,246.
14. Chief of Staff Terri Cobb, $126,149.
14. Chief Communications Officer Michael Evans, $126,149.
16. Millbrook High Principal Dana King, $125,984.
17. Wake Forest-Rolesville High Principal Tina Hoots, $124,816.
18. Assistant Superintendent (Student Services) Marvin Connelly Jr., $123,955.
19. Middle Creek High Principal John Williams, $123,514.
20. Sanderson High Principal Gregory Decker, $123,080.
The top 20 basically is comprised of Tata and his leadership team and several high school principals.
I've been told that the amount for Tata is different from the $250,000 in his base contract because he declined the health and dental coverage. It was converted into pay. Tata presumably is using the health coverage he received from his 28 years in the U.S. Army.
It's not too surprising that you've got high school principals in the top 20. The salary schedules are weighted toward principals of larger schools and when you facto in year of experience, the pay mounts.
In the past, some high school principals have taken pay cuts to work in Central Office or gotten exemptions to let them keep their higher salaries.
Comments
Except for Holdzkom -- who I
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 16:10 — woodstockExcept for Holdzkom -- who I believe has tried to undermine efforts and is often less that completely honest -- I say more power to them. Good educators are worth every cent they are paid and probably more, it is a very important job. If the teacher's union would stop protecting bad ones, the public would likley be willing to invest more. Bad teachers not only hurt students, they devalue the profession.
Benefits and pensions?
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 14:30 — trishamiI wish someone at the n&o would at least PRETEND to do their job. Salary information without benefit and pension information is almost useless.
hmmm
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 10:16 — magnetParentI wonder how Beulah Wright's replacement feels about making about half the salary she does at SERHS...
Huh? According to the N&O,
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 10:51 — SideburnsHuh?
According to the N&O, her replacement will have a salary of $121,915.
My mistake. I
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 11:02 — magnetParentMy mistake. I mis-remembered different principal's salary. Sorry.
Good to hear he is not shortchanged.
Oy....
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 09:59 — Bob_SconceOn the surface, this is surprisingly low -- On the surface, I would think that every WCPSS principal should be making at least $100k, considering the level of responsibility they have and the amount that education depends on schools having good principals. But, without looking at the benefits, it's really hard to tell. And state benefits generally compare favorably to private sector benefits. After all, it's always been far easier for the GA to raise future costs than current costs, so the GA has historically told state employees "You won't get as much now, but you'll get a lot more later." (Unfortunately, when 'later' comes, those politicians are long out of office.)
The relatively low number also shows a big reason why NC per-student expenses are a lot lower than per-student expenses elsewhere -- we pay our teachers a lot less. Here's an article about how some Pennsylvania teachers are getting over $100K: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10164/1065333-298.stm . (And that's in a part of the country where the cost of living is less than Raleigh's.)
One thing to consider is
Tue, 04/26/2011 - 10:29 — KeungHui (author)One thing to consider is that there's been a lot of turnover with principal retirements in the past decade. A number of veteran principals at the high end of the pay scale retired. You can see how highly paid those people were when they come back as an interim principal on a pro-rated salary that would work out to more than $100,000 if they held the job for the full year.