Turns out this week’s Rhino takes a look a potential costs of Mo Green’s strategic plan. Best estimates come from the CMS plan, which had a startup cost of $8 million. But:
In addition to the start-up cost, Charlotte’s system has ongoing costs in the form of higher salaries. An April 2008 study by the Charlotte Observer found that the number of CMS employees earning more than $100,000 a year increased by 29 percent during the 2007-2008 school year, the year the regional system was created. At that time, the school system had 90 employees making more than $100,000 a year, up from 70 the year before and 50 when Gorman was hired in 2006.
Guilford County Schools has 57 employees making more than $100,000 a year, but it has only 71,000 students, a little over half of Charlotte’s 132,000 students.
Charlotte’s area superintendents got raises of between 7 percent and 19 percent when they were promoted to that position, with most getting 10 percent pay increases.
Green has told the school board that he will reduce the amount of money being spent on administrators. Gorman made similar predictions in Charlotte, but that hasn’t happened.
There you have Green’s plan in a nutshell: More administrators making more money. Nice him him to turn down a raise, but…….
