State budget could cost some NC principals thousands of dollars in pay this year
Some North Carolina principals fear they could lose as much as $20,000 in pay this school year instead of the raises they’re supposed to be receiving in the new state budget.
State lawmakers approved a budget in July that includes a 4% raise in the salary schedule for principals but also changes how school test scores will be used to determine pay. Instead of using multiple years of test data, this year’s budget bases principal compensation on just the 2021-22 school year, when schools were still recovering from the pandemic.
Principals across the state are talking about how the change could lead to them seeing pay cuts of $8,000 or more. According to state figures, the average base salary for a principal is $82,160.
“It would be a shame to reduce any school leader’s pay by $9,000 or potentially $18,000 based entirely on the performance of a singular, exceptional year,” Patrick Greene, the 2022 North Carolina Principal of the Year, wrote in a letter sent Thursday to lawmakers.
“I am asking, on behalf of school principals, that the leaders of our General Assembly consider a Hold Harmless provision to school leaders.”
Lauren Horsch, a spokeswoman for Senate leader Phil Berger, said Friday there are no plans for the General Assembly to approve a hold harmless provision.
“The principal pay scale is based on the statewide average of growth scores, and even under the previous standard, there was the possibility that a principal could move down the pay scale,” Horsch said in an email. “Instead of skipping over the COVID years and relying on old data to determine principal pay, budget writers settled on a one-year look back period. “
Using only 2021-22 scores
Since 2017, the state has paid principals based on how many students are at their school and whether their school’s test scores met or exceeded growth expectations. It replaced a system where principals were paid based mainly on their years of education experience and whether they had advanced degrees.
Over the past six years, principals have received a total pay increase of nearly 26%, according to Horsch.
Principals have been paid based on the best school growth scores for two out of the past three years. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no growth scores were given in the 2019-20 school year and the 2020-21 school year.
In the new budget, principals will be paid through Dec. 31 using the best two out of three years of growth scores from the 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years. But from Jan. 1 to June 30, only the growth score from the 2021-22 school year will be used.
“By moving to a one-year look back period it’s more likely that a principal would meet or exceed growth scores compared to the previous standard,” Horsch said. “That previous standard also prevented new principals from moving up the pay scale since they’d have to wait to have at least two years of growth scores.
“The General Assembly’s fiscal staff predicts that under the one-year growth period more principals are likely to move up the pay scale based on the most recent one-year growth scores.”
But Greene, the principal of Greene Central High School in Greene County, told lawmakers that principals had a difficult time trying to keep schools open to restore an environment where learning could take place.
“Principals throughout our state successfully led their schools to higher growth performance before the COVID shutdown took students out of our schools,” Greene writes. “Many of these principals remained in their schools throughout the past two years and led their students and staff in what many will acknowledge as the most challenging period of our careers.”
Growth scores for the 2021-22 school year haven’t been officially released yet. But Katherine Joyce, executive director of the N.C. Association of School Administrators, said there’s no reason to think they’ll be as good as they were before the pandemic.
Multiple state and national studies have shown students suffered extensive learning loss during the pandemic. Nearly all the teachers who responded in this year’s state working conditions survey said their students are behind academically, with 78% saying they spent time covering material that students missed from the prior school year.
“School growth scores are not going to fare well,” Joyce said in an interview Friday. “They’re going to show the same decline as we see in outcomes for students. We know that principals are expecting to take a huge pay cut in their salaries.”
‘Adverse’ effect on principals
Concerns about the looming principal pay cut are rumbling across the state.
“It’s going to have an effect, an adverse one on many principals who are doing an excellent job,” Alan Duncan, vice chairman of the State Board of Education, said at Thursday’s meeting. “I know that is not the intent likely of the legislature, but that’s the effect.”
Shirley Prince, executive director of the N.C. Principals and Assistant Principals’ Association, said using only one year’s worth of data will exacerbate a situation where principals at economically disadvantaged schools have a hard time reaching the top growth scores.
“We believe in performance pay,” Prince said in an interview Friday. “But we don’t believe it should make such a large part of a principal’s salary and be based on one measure that can fluctuate so tremendously so that in one year you can lose $18,000 in pay.”
Helen Gross, the principal of Swansboro High School in Onslow County, tweeted Thursday that the change could impact pay by as much as $20,000.
“This is a tragic strategy for retention,” Gross added.
But Joyce said a legislative budget writer told the group that it’s a temporary change until they get multiple years of new data.
Still, Joyce said even using two out of three years of data can lead to wild swings in pay for principals. She said it makes it difficult for principals to plan their daily lives, such as applying for mortgages.
“We need a better pay model for principals,” Joyce said. “Maybe this current problem ready to occur will build momentum for a change.”
