SMITHFIELD – The Johnston County school board voted to extend the contracts of three top school officials, and increase their salaries.
In a 5-to-2 decision, the school board voted Nov. 7 to extend the contracts of Superintendent Dr. Eric Bracy, Assistant Superintendent Dr. David Pearce and Chief Financial Officer Stephen Britt.
Dr. Bracy received a 15.2 percent salary increase. up $32,810.88, from $216,189.12 to $249,099. He will continue to receive an additional $10,800 annually for travel-related expenses.
Dr. David Pearce and CFO Stephen Britt both received 10 percent salary increases. Pearce was making $143,521.44 and Britt was being paid $143,518.92. They will now make $158,112. Additionally, their travel allowances were increased from $8,400 to $11,888, a 41 percent increase. Details of their contract extensions were not disclosed.
Assistant Superintendent Patty Whittington did not receive a salary increase, however her annual travel allowance was increased by 28.5 percent from $8,400 to $10,800. Whittington receives a yearly salary of 135,164.04.
In an email Nov. 14, a school spokesperson said, “…JCPS compared the superintendent’s and executive team salaries to other large school districts and made adjustments to bring these salaries in line with comparable NC districts of our size.”
The contract extensions and salary increases were not listed on the published Nov. 7 agenda. They were added at the last minute before the start of the meeting. There were no discussions by the board prior to taking the vote.
Board Chair Lyn Andrews later said, ““Dr. Bracy has brought stability, transparency, and a focus on student achievement back to the school district, and the board is pleased to continue our work together.”
“I appreciate the board’s vote of confidence and consider it a privilege to lead Johnson County Public Schools,” Dr. Bracy said in an email. “We have excellent teachers, smart students, and a supportive community, all the ingredients needed to prepare children for college, careers that interest them, and to be productive citizens and community leaders.”
Dr. Bracy was originally hired July 1, 2020 and received a four year contract. In 2021 and 2022 his contract was extended an additional year. On November 7, 2023, the school board again extended his contract an additional year, through June 30, 2027.
In 2021, the contract extension vote was unanimous, 7 to 0. Last week, the vote was 5-to-2, with Ronald Johnson and Michelle Antoine voting against all contract extensions and salary increases.
Dr. Bracy was hired by JCPS in 2020 with a starting salary of $195,000. With his new salary of $249,099, his compensation has increased by 27.7 percent in three years.
By comparison, in 2020, the average NC teacher earned $54,392. In 2023, the average NC teacher pay is approximately $56,000, an increase of just over 3 percent in the same three years.
—
Editor’s Note (Nov. 15): This story has been updated to reflect the Nov. 7, 2023 school board vote extended Dr. Bracy’s contract by an additional year, not a two year extension as originally reported.
1/4 MILLION and one one of our schools are performing at acceptable proficiency levels. Mind boggling as to why we reward poor performance.
@Brett: Because the sheeple keep re-electing the same folks again and again. Just look at last week’s results: incumbents won more than 90% of the contests. #ReapWhatYouVote
We just need an Article V Convention of States at this point. No amount of “electing” is going to fix anything.
Mr. Brett, our chairwoman leader Lyn “Ma” Andrews along with Terry “Judas” Tippett knows as the others do that they need to re-enforce Mr. Bracy contract with not only money but with small print contractual changes that the public are not privy too so if all is lost on election day we have our Durham County ideology concreted in here in Johnston County! No matter your political ideology, your childen as your tax money belongs to the State!
We Progressive Democrats and teacher union teachers very well understand Socialist ways of life.
Hitler quote: “Give me your children and 10 years I will change the society.”
32k increase??? Good God that’s a lot
“The contract extensions and salary increases were not listed on the published Nov. 7 agenda. They were added at the last minute before the start of the meeting. There were no discussions by the board prior to taking the vote.” Once again this board failed is citizens. This board is corrupt. Just horrible.
5-2 yet again, two board members voted correctly, five of them are corrupt and need to go. Ron Johnson and Michelle Antoine consistently get it right.
You don’t say……..
Yet as a teacher we are asked to teach multiple classes at once. And the county has extra duty pay for this…..but look and see how many teachers teach through their planning and receive no compensation. Look into the School Board!
You wonder why the public doesn’t trust public schools? This is why. The average person is struggling to get by with everything becoming so expensive. Kids aren’t really learning, they’re just studying for a test that doesn’t mean anything while lacking critical skills. The board keeps asking for more money “for the schools” instead it goes to the pockets of corrupt government executives.
And the fact that they tried to hide it from the public by adding it at the very last second tells you how little they care about taxpayers. This should be illegal and all of them should be arrested.
Look into why teachers are teaching in person and virtual, but not getting extra duty pay that IS available. County offers, but denies. School Board should ask how many teachers teach on their planning but do not get extra pay. But hey, pay these folks more because its “in line with comparable NC districts of our size.” Pay the folks who just do their job, but make teachers “do more with less:
Look at the peasants complaining again. Get back to work or I’ll notify the authorities of disloyal party members.
For them to continue to take money from our schools to boost their pay is a bunch of crap
All we hear is how this and that will save the schools money but in reality the money you’re trying to save is just to give yourself a raise. Add what you just gave these people in pay raises and what you give our teachers and tell me if something isn’t wrong there !!! These people are crooks Our teachers are the ones doin the work in our classrooms. With out teachers you have no schools which means these positions that got raises wouldn’t have a job. They get to come to work in their suit and get Rich off of us . Bracy I think your a good guy and I like what you do but you should have stepped up and declined a raise knowing the problems we are having with our schools budget We could have hired 2-3 employees with these raises
Wow those are huge raises in a down economy when most people are struggling and not able to make ends meet. This board should have debated this topic and received public input. Next they will tell us they need to raise taxes so they can pay for the raises. Vote them all out!
Remember the remediation & retesting scheme from last spring? I wonder if that has anything to do with the stability that’s been brought to the system.
Scheme? can you clarify? Remediation and retesting were according to state law. It has nothing to do with JCPS.
How about this; if a child fails the first time taking the test and gets a second chance after “remediation” then passes, I would submit the test isn’t valid. To too long ago kids got to take the test 3 times after 5 hours of remediation. All of a sudden they are at grade level…..after 5 hours. EOG’s are not a legitimate indication of learning. They are political tools not academic.
How about giving the teachers and other employees a raise as well? Don’t they matter to the commissioners? They couldn’t have results without the teachers and other members of the Johnston County School system. Maybe the all other county employees should get one too.
This is not the Johnston County commissioners. It is the Johnston County elected School Board members. All but 2 of those elected voted against this.
Exactly! Instructional assistants are out here doing multiple jobs a day and not making nearly what they should! They sub, take care of kids, help teachers, drive buses and list goes on and on, all while getting treated like trash. It would take them over 10 years to make Bracys yearly salary! The rich get richer and the ones who are actually out here working get nothing!
One word comes to mind when I read this article…nauseating. He makes more than the governor of the state. Again…nauseating.
Raise Teacher Supplement to match Wake County.
Not a bad gig for the 3rd choice.
All of you Trump loving knuckle dragging republican has better be careful about bad mouthing our progressive liberal board members. All I have to do is copy and paste these hateful coments and send it to the Joe Biden FBI office notifiying them of your hate-speech towards our Lyn “Ma” Andrews and our Terry “Judas” Tippett and you parents and tax-payers will be label as domestic terrorist!!! Lyn “Ma” Andrews is going to crack down on this so-called free speech in her board meeting!!!
Go ahead you little pen head, all you have ever done is make trouble. Send all you can to the FBI, they have all they can do with out your opinions. Actually go ahead maybe they will research you, we will pray.
If I was on the board I would not allow any item be discussed that was not on the agenda at least 3 days prior to the meeting.
Yes let’s keep giving these people at county more money while our classified staff and teachers struggle to make ends meet! It is disgraceful!
As someone who has been working in JCPS for many, many years…I would NOT recognize any of our wonderful board members let alone the good Mr. Bracy, PhD. They are never around in the schools, in the classrooms, the bus lots, the cafeterias, media centers, etc…. to see any of the needs & hard work of the people/students they “work” for (HaHa) ! If there is PR news opts…there they are trying to see who can make the biggest show. So far RJ is in the lead with MA bringing up a close second. They both should have been gone a long time ago but I guess they have “something on someone(s)” who is in power to keep robbing our county schools, students & staff alike. Come to think of it …It all started with RJ whining years ago, he said/she said, nobody like me, everyone is against me, look at me ..I’m a cop…boohoohoo.
These salaries are OBSCENE!!! I don’t want to hear anything about the fact they are commensurate with other similarly sized county school systems! That’s all a load of manure. When will people wake up and discover these people are only in education to line their own pockets……to fleece the taxpayer. I have said for forty years that no administrator should have a salary higher than the most tenured teacher/faculty. That would separate those who are educators from, as G. Gordon Liddy called them, the educationalists. FYI……the same should hold true for the post-secondary level as well.
You’re forgetting they just got a 4% raise as well from the state! Hey Bracy and school board I want a 10% raise too! Another slap in the face, no wonder so many have left from his leadership team and more will now!
So Bracy did his job, what about the other two boys getting paid?? What’d they do? The top keep getting higher while the rest get dumped on. They should give it to the ones doing the work.
All that money could went into better housing for disability housing
disability housing? please, you’re already milking the government for money.
Teachers and support staff should be outraged. The guy has got a raise every year since he has been employed and the people who actually do the work get little to nothing. He, and the others, receive money for “travel”, do teachers and support staff get travel expenses? I thought if a county official traveled for their duties the county pays for it already? Why travel expenses? They have county vehicles and county gas for heaven sakes. What do they pay for? Food? 11k for food? That’s some expensive eating. The guy basically spends his days in meetings for 250k a year. What a joke. The fact the board snuck this on the agenda should tell you all you need to know about this corrupt school board.
How about the fact that teachers go to trainings in the summer and the “expenses” are barely covered? On top of that, you don’t get paid! Add to it that it can take the county almost 2 months to reimburse you for your expenses. However, 12 month employees are fully paid for trainings because they work 12 months. It’s a disgrace!
Been there…. Done that.
Greed is a mofo.
And the kids and teachers still have no books or supplies… DISGRACEFUL
Guess I need to go ahead a pay my county taxes that are due. Then “THE FIVE” can bump those 3 salaries up just a little more to reward them for all the failing schools!!! NO PUBLIC EMPLOYEE SHOULD BE PAID THIS MUCH — PLUS EXPENSES.
Back in 1976 I was urged to get my teaching certificate to have a “back up” option for a career. It took me only one semester to realize that I had rather do almost anything than be a public school teacher. From what i hear it has gotten much worse..
A quarter million a year for sitting in meetings. Good work if you can get it.
This comes as classrooms are sitting without teachers, no applicants are coming into the county, and current teachers are actively interviewing in neighboring counties for more money. Priorities are not right.
My student is asking to go to a school board meeting to let them know how hard it is to do school work on the chrome books they are required to use at his middle school. He said they are older computers, and slow.
Johnston county schools currently has 11 pages of job openings, each page having 50 openings. Granted they aren’t all teaching positions but infilled openings nonetheless. It has been this way for at least 2 years. No wonder the boe has the money for raises for the elite…. They aren’t paying the positions that are open. The inability to recruit and hire teachers doesn’t seem like a very effective leader to me.
Yet we can’t recruit or retain teachers, IAs, bus drivers, custodians, etc. because if the pay. Hey, some of those positions don’t even make $32k/year, and these board members just got that as a raise? Listen, I moved here from up north. There are a lot of things I love about NC. But the education system down here is a disgrace. My single town had a higher education budget than JoCo as a whole. I’ve been working in these schools for almost 10 years and can’t believe the conditions. And it’s just getting worse.
Does this bonus include the rumored Chevy Tahoe that Bracy and his cabinet members have been given to drive? If this rumor is not true, please someone prove it! If it is someone please explain why this is necessary AND from what fund does this $$ come from??
Yes it is true, there are 8 loaded Tahoe’s that the elite use.
Did they seriously buy 8 Tahoe’s? And this was approved by our BOE? Could they not find a more cost efficient form of transportation? Why a luxury SUV? This is absolutely wasteful. We have teachers buying basic needs for their own classrooms out of their own pockets. I can’t think of a single reason why they would need to buy such expensive cars!
What about the teachers who are holding the whole education system together while working another job on the side? The shortage of bus drivers and children arriving home around the time the sun goes down because they aren’t being paid properly? These people don’t deserve pay raises because they’re doing an awful job in making sure their employees are being paid properly.
Johnston county teachers pay is 10,000 less than the state average Bracy is now making almost 100,000 more than the state average pay for a superintendent!!!! Does any one see anything wrong with this. There is one way to fix this since no one on the board is willing to take up for our teachers pay WALK OUT. WALK OUT !!! Force them to pay up ! Us parents will not be mad at you . Refuse these 2 or 3 percent pay increases they try to give you. That’s like spitting in your face . Our teachers and staff deserve better . Stop building more gyms and all of the unnecessary stuff until we get our teachers straight. They deserve their pay They are who are preparing our kids for their future Wake the hell up Johnston county. Vote everyone on that board out. Bracy should have refused the pay raise 4 of those raises add up to over a half a million dollars that 4 employees make. Thats equivalent to 10-12 teachers pay all together. Vote for George. He will fight for the pay our teachers deserve. He has my vote and will not settle for nothing less. We need a backbone on that board I have known him for a while and he is the voice that we need on the board VOTE VOTE VOTE
Respectfully, teachers get paid based on the state scale based on experience. Every teacher is paid the same based on how many years they have taught at each level. The difference is usually the county supplement each county offers. Other factors such as extra duty assignments can affect a teachers salary but as far as base pay; that is by state scale.
This is ridiculous! How is the average teacher pay $56,000? It took me 17 years of teaching with a Master’s degree to make this! Travel expenses? What does that even mean? That’s a lot of money for travel. Do they get to use our tax money to put gas in their cars to drive to their big paying jobs? Seriously!! TA’s deserve a raise before anyone else. They work their butts off and could get paid just as much to work in Fast Food.