The Spotsylvania County School Board unanimously advanced Superintendent Clint Mitchell’s proposed $547.6 million budget during a meeting Monday, but some members voiced concerns about salaries for administrators and central office staff.
Chief Financial Officer Phillip Trayer responded to a submitted question regarding salaries for principals, assistant principals, high school athletic directors, and central office personnel.
His answer revealed that while salaries for teachers are on a scale comparable to surrounding localities such as Fredericksburg, Caroline, King George and Stafford, the administrators and central office scale compares Spotsylvania to Stafford, but also Richmond City, Newport News and Hampton.
Spotsylvania first-year principals earn $19,000 more than Stafford and are at the top of the scale that includes the urban localities of Richmond, Newport News and Hampton.
First-year assistant principals in Spotsylvania earn $20,700 more than Stafford, and ADs earn $5,700 more as an entry point.
Central office personnel with “chief” in their title, start off earning $14,600 more in Spotsylvania than Stafford. Executive directors earn $4,600 more at the beginning than in Stafford and $31,000 higher with more experience. “Directors” take home $18,000 more than Stafford when they enter Spotsylvania’s division and $31,000 more as they progress to the top of the scale.
Larry DiBella, who represents the Berkeley District on the school board, requested the board to consider slashing the pay of administrators and central office staff to make their pay closer to regional counterparts, but was rebuffed by his fellow board members.
“I would ask that we ask the staff to start preparing salary scales that would be better in line with Stafford,” DiBella said … “I know for the rest of the county, we’re not in position where we can pay our police officers nearly 20% above market rate. We’re not in position in this county where we can pay our firefighters more than 20% above market rate and we’re not in position to pay our teachers more than 20% above market rate.”
School Board Vice Chair Belen Rodas said she would consider examining the salary scale in the future, but she is vehemently opposed to immediate pay cuts. Rodas said it is unfair to hire an employee with a certain contract and later change it to lower their pay.
“Under no circumstances would I support decreasing by 20% or a significant amount of our current employees’ salary,” Rodas said. “They’ve made their decisions, made their lives, built their families’ choices based on a salary that we offered them, and I can’t think of a way to slash morale faster among our administration than to start significantly slashing salaries for current employees.”
Lee Hill District representative Rich Lieberman agreed with DiBella that the salary scale needs a reboot but disagreed that it’s appropriate to cut the salaries of current employees.
Lieberman said morale may also be impacted by teachers knowing the discrepancy between the scales used to justify an administrator’s salary, and the rate they’re paid.
“Think about a teacher who looks at, ‘I’m struggling, but my assistant principal is getting $20,000 more than Stafford and I’m not,’” Lieberman said.
Carol Medawar of the Courtland District said that administrators and central office staff are instrumental in a division’s ability to retain teachers and staff and their salaries are justified. She said that when teachers depart, it’s typically because of poor leadership in supervisory roles.
Mitchell said he will instruct his staff to produce an analysis of administrator pay compared to regional counterparts, rather than one based on the size of the school division. However, he said he’s wary of the entire conversation because it is “pitting teachers and principals against each other.”
Mitchell and Trayer noted that while teachers and principals in Spotsylvania earn more at the entry level than Stafford and other comparable localities, there is a dramatic shift for educators with experience. Stafford’s veteran teachers and principals earn $19,000 more per year than in Spotsylvania.
“I think we need to work on fixing teacher salary, but not at the expense of [downgrading] administrative salaries,” Mitchell said.
In other business, the school board agreed to bring back a presentation on the possibility of drug screenings for new hires and a random 20% of current employees. Lieberman asked could the topic be revisited with three new board members from when it was discussed in 2024. The idea was introduced and voted down by the board in 2024 after a Spotswood Elementary School teacher possessed drugs in the classroom, was arrested at school and later convicted of multiple felonies, including child endangerment.
The board also voted unanimously to reverse a previous decision allowing the recording of closed sessions and approved required professional learning for the school board on the Freedom of Information Act and the Conflict of Interest Act. State and regional conferences are optional under the revised professional learning policy.
