Thursday, August 29, 2013

Morrison a bargain at $2.06 per student?

Raleigh TV station WRAL has created a fascinating database of contracts for all the state's superintendents. The list includes salary, bonuses and perks,  as well as a "pay per student" calculation.

Merrill
Not surprisingly, James Merrill in Wake County and Heath Morrison in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools have the highest salaries.  But they land at the bottom on a per-student calculation, with Merrill at $1.83 and Morrison at $2.06  (Morrison's would  be lower if the tally had included about 3,000 prekindergarten students in CMS).

Morrison
Morrison's $288,000 base pay is a combination of $151,413 in state pay and $136,587 in local money. Merrill gets $116,000 from the state and $159,000 from Wake County,  for a total of $275,000.  According to the WRAL article,  the state portion is based on number of students,  longevity and advanced certifications.  Districts use local money and perks to attract the leaders they want.

Morrison tops the list for base pay and potential bonus (10 percent of his base pay,  or $28,000).  But his benefits don't stand out as unusual.  The WRAL article notes that Currituck County provided its superintendent a rent-free house and agreed to fence the yard for her dogs. Superintendent Allison Sholar decided to move out about a year later,  the article says,  and the board amended her contract to give her an additional $1,200 a month  (while turning the house into office space).

Mooresville Superintendent Mark Edwards got 20 extra vacation days so he can visit out-of-state family, the article notes.

16 comments:

Wiley Coyote said...

Apples and oranges....

Just because CMS has 14-,--- <<<---insert your own number here since it changes daily, means nothing.

CMS also has a bloated administration that handles a lot of things Morrison doesn't have to.

Is Brian Moynihan a bargain at BOFA for $9.06 per employee?

Morrison is only worth what the results show he produces.

Anonymous said...

More $$$ for advanced certifications ?


SO more money for MOrrison if he has a Masters or above degrees. Isnt that rich.

Frontline teachers that actually make a day to day difference get NOTHING !

Might as well go out with the workers in front of Taco Bell today. They will probably be making more than TEACHERS next year with better benefits !

Shamash said...

Anon 4:20.

Maybe the teachers should protest in front of the new "virtual" High School at CMS

If they can find it...

The threat to their future is not:

"Would you like fries with that?"

but, rather:

"Hello, my name is Wajih and I am your Microsoft Certified Virtual Instructor for today".

Don't believe it ain't happening.

They already offer "certification" for it in several locations including the Virtual Instructors Academy of Texas.

Anonymous said...

Khan Academy: The future of education? - CBS News

Shamash said...

Not just Khan Academy, but India has started providing virtual teaching assistants as well.

Remember, people laughed at India when they started outsourcing big time in the 1990's primarily for the Y2K bug which involved mostly "older" technology and skills that weren't current.

Then they leveraged that experience to take over more modern development once they "proved" their skills and got international "certifications" for their software quality.

Now, they are doing the same in education:

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/education/100419/education-india-outsourcing:

Education in the U.S. has been faulted recently for falling behind rigorous academic systems in India and China. Some critics find it ironic that myriad teaching tasks such as homework help, SAT exam support and now, grading students’ college assignments, is being outsourced to India, one of the countries that President Barack Obama exhorts Americans to compete against in the global workplace.

“We are just getting started, this trend is unstoppable,” said Ravindra Singh Bangari, vice president of EduMetry in India, where the bulk of its assessors are based. Bangari, formerly a counterinsurgency specialist in the Indian army, teaches at a premier business school in India while EduMetry’s co-founder Chandru Rajam is a professor at George Washington University School of Business

Anonymous said...

This is off the subject but could someone PLEASE fix the air condition in my child's building!

It's 80+ degrees, and everyone is miserable. How are you supposed to learn when you are so hot you cannot think?

Wiley Coyote said...

6:25...

Unfortunately, since CMS doesn't get any state or federal money for air that is already free for everyone, it will probably take a while for it to get fixed.

CMS believes a full belly is the key for students to improve in school, not comfort.


I hope it's soon...

Anonymous said...

Spaugh Learning Center


All hot air and empty minds

Anonymous said...

Will somebody do something about the infestation of ROACHES at Providence High School. They are running all over the students sitting on the floors

Anonymous said...

Just returned from visiting family in the Cincinnati area. My sister-in-law teaches in a small (8000 students)well regarded local system there. I went with her to her board office (very friendly place with about 20 employees). She introduced me to her superintendent and said I was from North Carolina. He told me that one of the system's teachers had moved to NC and was teaching in a system called "Mecklenburg or something like that". She had emailed him that last week all teachers attended a huge rally downtown in an arena--she couldn't believe it. He said had never heard of anything like that before. I wish I'd had time to tell him all that he's missing by not being part of a 144,000 plus student school system.

Anonymous said...

When I was in school, we not only didn't have air conditioning, but we had to stoke a coal furnace every morning until June.

And walk uphill both ways to the coal mine to dig the coal....

And we liked it.

Anonymous said...

CMS could care less about the roaches at Providence HS. I think its more telling in the comment that kids are sitting on the floor! While at a LIFT school they are probably each sitting in La-Z Boy chairs! Ha
AKHS is the same-find some floor space. Funny that CMS can turn a blind eye to the suburbs.Its like biting the hand that feeds you-both in regards to $ and test scores.

Anonymous said...

In suburbia, we're living the dream...

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down on the floor together in an overcrowded, understaffed classroom.

Anonymous said...

Let's hire 5 more area superitendents. That should solve the roach, a/c, overcrowding, and all will be good.

Anonymous said...

5 more Area Supers hired will then be able to replace 1 light bulb.

Many many more administrators will it take to get the grass mowed , kill the roaches and get the A/C fixed.

Unknown said...

I can't believe how much they're paying for these administrators, if that happened somewhere at the Business School Entrepreneurship where I am currently taking an MBA, I would really make a big deal out of it. They should be spending it on improving school programs and facilities and not just on these administrators' bank accounts.