For the first time in nine years, principals with the Columbus Municipal School District are getting a new salary schedule with six more step increases and higher starting pay, according to Superintendent Cherie Labat.
At a special-call meeting on Monday afternoon, the CMSD board of trustees unanimously approved a new salary schedule for principals in the district that raises the cap on what they can be paid. Previously, principals capped out on salary after four steps, but the new salary schedule caps 10 steps, and the starting salary for first-time principals has been raised for all four levels.
New salary schedules were approved for the principals of the high school, middle school, elementary schools and Union Success Academy.
The new salary schedule for the high school principal begins at $90,000 for someone with no experience and yearly step increases can range from $1,000 to $4,000 depending on level of certification. The previous starting salary for the high school principal was $84,600, so there has been a 6.4 percent increase.
The middle school principal salary schedule begins at $85,000 for someone with no experience. Step increases range from $1,000 to $3,000. The previous starting salary for the middle school principal was $76,300, so there has been an 11.4 percent increase.
The elementary school principal salary schedule begins at $75,000 for someone with no experience, with steps ranging from $1,000 to $2,500. An extra $2,000 will be added for principals whose school has more than 350 students. The previous starting salary for elementary school principals was $69,000, so there has been an 8.7 percent increase.
The Union Success Academy principal salary will begin at $72,000 for someone with no experience, with steps also ranging from $1,000 to $2,500 based on certification level. The previous starting salary for the Union Success Academy principal was $66,500, so there has been an 8.3 percent increase.
“The only salaries that we’ve worked through was for assistant principals because we couldn’t recruit principals and assistant principals,” Labat said. “… Principals haven’t had a raise in nine years. The county’s (salary) schedule gets raised every year no matter what. So you could be a principal out there and make $115,000 if you stay long enough.”
Other administrative and non-teaching positions were up to have their pay raised as well, but board member Telisa Young moved to approve the pay raise for principals and assistant principals and table the other raises for the next board meeting, which will be 9 a.m. Saturday. The board will address the salary schedules for other roles such as the assistant director of special education, athletic director, business administrator and the central office administrative assistant and receptionist.
Young said she wanted to make sure the other pay raises are doable from a funding standpoint before moving forward and asked CMSD’s business manager, Holly Rogers, to have those numbers before the next meeting.
“I’m just a black and white kind of person,” Young said. “I’m not saying everyone doesn’t deserve a raise because they definitely do, in everything they do day-to-day, but I would like to make sure we can afford it before we make a decision.”
According to Rogers, the district can currently afford the proposed salary schedules and is hopeful for the future of the economy in Columbus.
Labat urged the board to approve the raises once seeing the numbers, citing inflation, the rising gas prices and competitive pay to keep people in the district.
“The other raises are based on inflation,” Labat said. “I mean it’s $5 a gallon (for gas), food prices, rent prices are going up. … I just think inflation alone is enough for us to think about how we treat our employees and how much it’s costing to live now, which is a big factor. We don’t know how long it’s going to stay like this. I think we’re going to be in this for at least two years.”
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