The 20 highest-paid people at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
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What we pay our educators has been a huge debate in North Carolina. Teacher pay remains near the bottom nationally (No. 47 in 2013-14). Turnover rates are at a five-year high.
Things are obviously a bit different for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools top administrators. But even in the central office, the district has begun to take a look at salaries. I’ve heard from the school board that people like budget officers or IT technicians or what have you can even look to different floors in the Government Center and see people with comparable jobs making more money.
This is the third and final installment in our local government salary series. Take a look at city salaries here, and county salaries here.
In its salary database, CMS reported actual earnings in 2014, so these won’t reflect new hires in 2015 or job title/salary changes since then.
Overall, you’ll find that top salaries tend to be lower in CMS than at the city or county. That’s been a sticking point for the system, who are quick to tell you that CMS has 18,000+ employees while the city has about 7,000.
But you’ll also notice as you go through this list the sheer amount of turnover, even at this high level.
1) Ann Clark, superintendent
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Annual pay: $262,000
Note: This is less than the $288,000 former Superintendent Heath Morrison made.
2) Sheila Shirley, chief financial officer
Annual pay: $193,177.86
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3) George Battle III, general counsel
Annual pay: $187,697.76
4) Maureen Furr, South Mecklenburg High principal
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Annual pay: $167,161.59
Note: South Meck is the largest school in CMS
5) Kelly Gwaltney, chief school performance officer
Annual pay: $165,449.98
Note: Gwaltney has since moved to become principal of Garinger High.
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6) Valerie Truesdale, chief information officer
Annual pay: $160,250.31
7-tie) Kathryn Block, chief communications officer
Annual pay: $160,249.98
7-tie) Frank Barnes, chief accountability officer
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Annual pay: $160,249.98
9) John Wall Jr., West Charlotte High principal
Annual pay: $158,907.77
Note: Wall has since become the Northeast-Vance learning community superintendent.
10) Denise Watts, Project Lift learning community superintendent
Annual pay: $157,067.46
11) Nancy Brightwell, Northeast-Vance learning community superintendent
Annual pay: $156,036.49
Note: Brightwell is no longer in this role.
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12) Anne Brinkley, Eastway Middle principal
Annual pay: $151,340.48
Note: Brinkley is no longer at Eastway.
13) Curtis Carroll, West-Harding/Phillip O. Berry learning community superintendent
Annual pay: $149,159.47
14) Kit Rea, southwest zone superintendent
Annual pay: $145,405.47
Note: Rea is now principal at Vance High.
15) Diane Adams, Providence Spring Elementary principal
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Annual pay: $144,768.14
16) Charity Bell, Northeast-Garinger learning community superintendent
Annual pay: $143,669.59
17) Tonya Kales, learning community superintendent
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Annual pay: $142,506.71
Note: Kales has since left for a leadership position in the education turnaround division in the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.
18) Ynez Olshausen, E.E. Waddell Language Academy principal
Annual pay: $140,253.74
Note: Olshausen retired before this school year and is now an independent language immersion consultant.
19) Joey Burch, Levine Middle College principal
Annual pay: $140,099.50
20) Paul Pratt, West-West Mecklenburg learning community superintendent
Annual pay: $138,592.93