Top salaries in the Concord School District, where overtime doesn’t boost wages, are generally lower than on the city side of the ledger, and top earners are more evenly spread between men and women.
The Concord School District paid 26 employees more than $100,000 in 2018, compared to 51 employees for the city. Of the school’s highest paid employees, including administrators and teachers, 14 were women, compared to 12 men. On the city side of government, eight of the top 51 earners were women, according to a Monitor analysis of city and school pay for calendar year 2018 as part of Sunshine Week.
Overall, school wages move along at an orderly pace – teachers get annual raises outlined in their contract and move up an annual pay step based on longevity. They can boost their pay by earning an additional degree or taking on additional duties, like coaching an athletic team.
At the start of the school year with the passage of a new teacher’s contract, wages were projected to increase by about $1.2 million this school year.
But new estimates show the increase will be closer to $400,000 because of teacher turnover and other factors, said district Business Administrator Jack Dunn.
The school district spent $44 million on employee salaries last year, according to the data. Teacher salaries, including part-time and full-time positions, took up almost $29 million of that amount.
When negotiations began last year, Dunn said he began with the assumption that the number of teachers budgeted in the 2017-18 school year would be there in the 2018-19 budget.
But that figure didn’t account for all the changes that can happen in a district by the time negotiations picked up again in the fall.
Some teachers retired, taking them out of the pool entirely, some open positions were eliminated as enrollment continues to decline in the district. Others might have had a child or taken a leave of absence. Others could have just resigned.
Certainly, retirements can make a difference. Ten teachers retired last year, said human resources director Larry Prince. With the exception of one teacher who retired after six years, their years of service ranged from 27 to 37 years. When those teachers are replaced by new hires at the bottom of the salary scale, the district saves money.
It’s too soon to say how negotiations with the district’s other groups will factor into next year’s budget, which is currently estimated about $85 million.
The district just finished negotiations with its building principals, said Prince.
A tentative three-year agreement with the custodians has been reached, with ratification by the union possible this Saturday. If that occurs, the school board may ratify that contract in April.
The district is still negotiating with its bus drivers and bus monitors, and its tutors.
The departure of the few highly-paid employees caused a shift in some of the names at the top of the ranks.
The departure of Rundlett Middle School principal, James McCollum, who was the second-highest paid member of the district last year, bumped Concord High School principal Tom Sica up to the No. 2 spot.
And Kathleen Riordan, the former Abbot-Downing School principal who had been at the post since 2014, retired last year with a salary of $115,000. But because most employee contracts end July 1, and the salaries reflect earnings for calendar year 2018, she still appears on the list much lower down, at about $76,000.
Her successor, Anthony Blinn, appears on the list around the $55,000 mark.
Find a searchable database of school earnings at ConcordMonitor.com.
(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)