HOS Salary and Teacher Pay

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve noticed that teachers at local privates attended more expensive, higher-ranking grad & undergrad schools than teachers at local publics, but are lower paid. I assume dealing with fewer behavioral issues & having more autonomy draw teachers to teach in private versus public. I also have a hunch that a lot of my children’s teachers are married to higher earners.

This is going to sound a bit tasteless, but I have met a couple teachers throughout my child’s time attending a big 3 that seemed to enjoy being in the proximity of powerful families. Especially in instances when their own kids were attending the school. There was a social climbing aspect to it.

I worked private for 10 years. The overwhelming majority of teachers I worked with either came from or were married to money, so salary didn’t really matter. Another large chunk were brand new teachers who didn’t know they were underpaid and/or didn’t mind having multiple roommates (or still living at home).

I never really saw the social aspect you mention in DC but I did in my previous city, where it’s a little easier to “play important” than it is here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HOS are CEO/COO of multi-million dollar businesses and in the event of GDS, total assets: over 300,000 million. The responsibility for a HOS is that of a multi-million dollar company. Why doesn't anyone argue that Jeff Bezos makes ..... and he has employees that make $15/hr? Lay off the schools...

+1

Schools are small businesses, and need to be well-run to meet their missions. The teachers are only one part of it - someone has to actually lead them. It’s not better or worse, and the market just pays then differently. If you advertised one of these HOS jobs for a $300K salary you likely would get a very different set of candidates (I would guess less experienced) than at market rates. I am not sure I would want my kids’ school to be the ones trying that.

Frankly, you couldn’t pay me enough to deal with the types of tasks HOS have to deal with - particularly grumpy parents and fundraising. University leaders have different problems, so it’s a different skills set, and different market.

I work for a large nonprofit (not direct service) and our CEO makes seven figures - to get good folks at a nonprofit you also need to pay competitive compensation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:\
This is going to sound a bit tasteless, but I have met a couple teachers throughout my child’s time attending a big 3 that seemed to enjoy being in the proximity of powerful families. Especially in instances when their own kids were attending the school. There was a social climbing aspect to it.

How could I forget - the low pay is worth it because they get to be in the presence of power and wealth. How lucky they must be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:\
This is going to sound a bit tasteless, but I have met a couple teachers throughout my child’s time attending a big 3 that seemed to enjoy being in the proximity of powerful families. Especially in instances when their own kids were attending the school. There was a social climbing aspect to it.

How could I forget - the low pay is worth it because they get to be in the presence of power and wealth. How lucky they must be.

We love how the lustre 'rubs off on us' -- a teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve noticed that teachers at local privates attended more expensive, higher-ranking grad & undergrad schools than teachers at local publics, but are lower paid. I assume dealing with fewer behavioral issues & having more autonomy draw teachers to teach in private versus public. I also have a hunch that a lot of my children’s teachers are married to higher earners.

This is going to sound a bit tasteless, but I have met a couple teachers throughout my child’s time attending a big 3 that seemed to enjoy being in the proximity of powerful families. Especially in instances when their own kids were attending the school. There was a social climbing aspect to it.

I worked private for 10 years. The overwhelming majority of teachers I worked with either came from or were married to money, so salary didn’t really matter. Another large chunk were brand new teachers who didn’t know they were underpaid and/or didn’t mind having multiple roommates (or still living at home).

I never really saw the social aspect you mention in DC but I did in my previous city, where it’s a little easier to “play important” than it is here.

+1. Many of my old prep school teachers used to donate their salaries. They didn’t need them.

[Anonymous]

Quite frankly, this is a disgusting narrative that private school teachers should be satisfied with their low pay because either 1. they don't need it or 2. the benefits of "being around money" make up for it.

All the teachers I know, including myself, need their salary and are struggling to have the kind of life they'd like because they are not being paid more competitively. Yes, it is less stressful to teach in a private school rather than a public school, but it's still a hell of a job and we deserve more than we're paid.

[Anonymous]

Ew. What are the salaries of.local HOS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HOS are CEO/COO of multi-million dollar businesses and in the event of GDS, total assets: over 300,000 million. The responsibility for a HOS is that of a multi-million dollar company. Why doesn't anyone argue that Jeff Bezos makes ..... and he has employees that make $15/hr? Lay off the schools...

+1

Schools are small businesses, and need to be well-run to meet their missions. The teachers are only one part of it - someone has to actually lead them. It’s not better or worse, and the market just pays then differently. If you advertised one of these HOS jobs for a $300K salary you likely would get a very different set of candidates (I would guess less experienced) than at market rates. I am not sure I would want my kids’ school to be the ones trying that.

Frankly, you couldn’t pay me enough to deal with the types of tasks HOS have to deal with - particularly grumpy parents and fundraising. University leaders have different problems, so it’s a different skills set, and different market.

I work for a large nonprofit (not direct service) and our CEO makes seven figures - to get good folks at a nonprofit you also need to pay competitive compensation.

I do agree that that private schools are small business and you need a good salary to attract good quality people. But, I’ve yet to understand why many are paid equal or more than college/university heads or Supers of large public school districts, especially those around here. They have significantly less work and worries than them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve noticed that teachers at local privates attended more expensive, higher-ranking grad & undergrad schools than teachers at local publics, but are lower paid. I assume dealing with fewer behavioral issues & having more autonomy draw teachers to teach in private versus public. I also have a hunch that a lot of my children’s teachers are married to higher earners.

This is going to sound a bit tasteless, but I have met a couple teachers throughout my child’s time attending a big 3 that seemed to enjoy being in the proximity of powerful families. Especially in instances when their own kids were attending the school. There was a social climbing aspect to it.

I worked private for 10 years. The overwhelming majority of teachers I worked with either came from or were married to money, so salary didn’t really matter. Another large chunk were brand new teachers who didn’t know they were underpaid and/or didn’t mind having multiple roommates (or still living at home).

I never really saw the social aspect you mention in DC but I did in my previous city, where it’s a little easier to “play important” than it is here.

There’s also a decent chunk that take the job so their child will get preference in admission and reduced/free tuition. I attended GDS as a kid, and one of my best friends mom worked there so my friend and her brother would be able to attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve noticed that teachers at local privates attended more expensive, higher-ranking grad & undergrad schools than teachers at local publics, but are lower paid. I assume dealing with fewer behavioral issues & having more autonomy draw teachers to teach in private versus public. I also have a hunch that a lot of my children’s teachers are married to higher earners.

This is going to sound a bit tasteless, but I have met a couple teachers throughout my child’s time attending a big 3 that seemed to enjoy being in the proximity of powerful families. Especially in instances when their own kids were attending the school. There was a social climbing aspect to it.

I worked private for 10 years. The overwhelming majority of teachers I worked with either came from or were married to money, so salary didn’t really matter. Another large chunk were brand new teachers who didn’t know they were underpaid and/or didn’t mind having multiple roommates (or still living at home).

I never really saw the social aspect you mention in DC but I did in my previous city, where it’s a little easier to “play important” than it is here.

There’s also a decent chunk that take the job so their child will get preference in admission and reduced/free tuition. I attended GDS as a kid, and one of my best friends mom worked there so my friend and her brother would be able to attend.

Those days are long gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve noticed that teachers at local privates attended more expensive, higher-ranking grad & undergrad schools than teachers at local publics, but are lower paid. I assume dealing with fewer behavioral issues & having more autonomy draw teachers to teach in private versus public. I also have a hunch that a lot of my children’s teachers are married to higher earners.

This is going to sound a bit tasteless, but I have met a couple teachers throughout my child’s time attending a big 3 that seemed to enjoy being in the proximity of powerful families. Especially in instances when their own kids were attending the school. There was a social climbing aspect to it.

I worked private for 10 years. The overwhelming majority of teachers I worked with either came from or were married to money, so salary didn’t really matter. Another large chunk were brand new teachers who didn’t know they were underpaid and/or didn’t mind having multiple roommates (or still living at home).

I never really saw the social aspect you mention in DC but I did in my previous city, where it’s a little easier to “play important” than it is here.

+1. Many of my old prep school teachers used to donate their salaries. They didn’t need them.

This happened at my K - 8 in New England in the late 60's & early 70's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest joke is the HOS at SAES makes over 440K. To head a school that ranks that low...

Ouch. That’s harsh. A new head might do better for the school. But that head might cost more money.

I'm not sure what you mean. Do better how? I'm an SAES employee and not bothered at all to read here what he earns. He's been at the school for over 20 years and has transformed it in every way. He's well liked by teachers and families. As to the other PP's question about why heads didn't take a pay cut during the pandemic, are you serious? The last 3 years were the hardest thing that schools have had to go through in 100 years. Our HOS made sure we got substantial adjustments to our salaries last year and this year because of inflation. True, it may not be a lot to most of you, but it helped my family.

As for "ranking low." There is no ranking of DC independent schools. SAES is well regarded with high demand for admission. It is attended by talented students who place extremely well at colleges and go on to do truly great things in the world. Your bitterness is a tell. Why did you go looking for the compensation of the SAES head in particular? Was your child counseled out or just not offered admission? If we weren't able to serve his / her needs, we're sorry, but I believe that we always, always have the best interests of the student at heart when it comes to those decisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can see families leaving because their values are conservative, but for GDS to tell families they can leave because they want equitable compensation for teachers and staff relative to their HOS is ugly.

Where is GDS telling families to leave?

i've seen families leave over the years and #1 reason is costs and lack of financial aid covering full need. Will see another decent amount of this in coming year

I've not heard of anyone leaving for politics reasons but pretty much every parent event I go to ends up in a flavor of this topic of how the school has changed in last 3-4 years, how HOS makes so much money, and college outcomes have been so poor in last few years vs. NYC/LA peer schools

Fwiw none of the parents I know are comparing to NYC or LA since we, um, live in DC. College admits were great last year, as good or better than a lot of other DC schools. Not so much this year but classes do differ year to year.

[Anonymous]

Depressing. Just looked up the salary of our HOS… not in DC. He’s a little nutty. Can’t believe he makes that much. Lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve noticed that teachers at local privates attended more expensive, higher-ranking grad & undergrad schools than teachers at local publics, but are lower paid. I assume dealing with fewer behavioral issues & having more autonomy draw teachers to teach in private versus public. I also have a hunch that a lot of my children’s teachers are married to higher earners.

This is going to sound a bit tasteless, but I have met a couple teachers throughout my child’s time attending a big 3 that seemed to enjoy being in the proximity of powerful families. Especially in instances when their own kids were attending the school. There was a social climbing aspect to it.

This is such an awesome post for so many reasons. 😂

Pp captured this perfectly. Some teachers stay at high profile privates because it's the only way they can tether themselves to that echelon of society. Maybe they are third or forth generation wealth, with no actual wealth, and it the o my way they can secure their children's inclusion in a world they can't actually afford. There is the earnest excuses covering real problems of being able to afford $50k tuition.