Anonymous
Post 02/02/2025 20:47     Subject: private school head are paid what?????
For me, the compelling distinction is between HOS and division heads. My sense is that the difference is at least five-times. Hard to see how that makes sense.
Anonymous
Post 02/02/2025 20:42     Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Field School head makes 700k. why do they need to ask for donations. I am curious what other think ehads should make. I though school were non profits so why are they getting CEO salerries?

What does other heads make?


You also don’t seem to know anything about high functioning nonprofit leadership either.

God bless.



It’s obscene, especially when compared to the people actually doing the work. Anyone in this thread that’s arguing that the salary is valid is probably on the take as well. Just like the HOS’s.
Anonymous
Post 01/23/2025 04:13     Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It's multiple jobs in one. You need to be a charismatic public speaker, a deft fundraiser, a passable administrator and manager of staff/talent, outwardly tolerant of insane parents and subject to the egos of the Board. It's not an impossible job and not totally different than being the CEO of a small/medium sized business, but it's not a simple gig,


Lots of jobs are multiple jobs in one and hard to do well.


Like teaching.
Anonymous
Post 01/23/2025 02:57     Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:The heads are effectively the primary fund raisers.


This. they need to be able to bring money to school. Tuition does not cover the total operation cost, there is endowment to grow as well. It is all about money.
Anonymous
Post 01/23/2025 00:03     Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:Hmm, so you want to cap a school head at something less than 10x what a teacher makes, but we are ok with corporate ceo's making thousands of times what a rank and file worker makes?


No, we’re not okay with corporate CEOs make that much more than rank and file. Those should be capped as well. Folks have been saying this for awhile and particularly since the 07 Financial Crisis.

The same BS lines are used for them. “Needing to find the right person and the pool being small”. It’s BS for corporate CEOs just as it’s BS about HOS.
Anonymous
Post 01/22/2025 20:54     Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Underpaying teachers and dismissing them as educated professionals with a critical skill set is not just a private school issue. It's pervasive across this country. And you're right, it absolutely drives people away. People who could be great educators never even consider it because it is so devalued in the US. So, again, it's a market issue. We don't value teachers and we pay them peanuts (publics and privates), so people don't go into the profession in the first place. Then we drive out educators with garbage pay and terrible treatment. We're at a crisis point in this country and I fear teaching will have to collapse in order for positive change to happen.
Anonymous
Post 01/22/2025 18:12     Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You sound clueless. The job market for these roles is what it is. Would you like this school to find someone who will do it for less?


Not sure how much it is market driven but vanity driven. HOS didn't make anything like these salaries in the 1990s. They made comfortable incomes but something shifted in the last 20 years and somehow schools started to equivalate being a HOS with being a CEO. Same with non profits, they saw salaries of senior leaderships soar into similar territories. I see it as a form of insider grift among a certain class rather than anything market driven.


it is absolutely market driven, because nonprofits couldn't hold on to good leaders paying them peanuts. Effective leaders left nonprofits after short stints because no matter how passionate you are about the cause, you still have bills to pay. Nonprofits couldn't find good candidates because of the pay. It took years and years of Boards asking "why can't we find and retain good leadership?" before they were finally willing to admit that pay was the root of the problem. It's taken another 20+ years for nonprofits to similarly recognize that it applies to all levels of staff, not just senior leaders and finally start paying people what they're worth, although there are still holdouts. A recent client of mine in a major southern metro really thought they were going to get a development director with 10+ years experience across all areas of fundraising for $50,000 (and absolute joke benefits, but that's another story).

Big nonprofits, including large independent schools, really do need CEO leaders. These are complex organizations. And what I tell my clients is you may be a nonprofit, but you're a business. You need to act like one. Is it possible that some schools are wildly overpaying their HOS? Yeah. But that's true at for-profit business, too. Even if you somehow successfully led a revolt at your current school and convinced them to pay a new HOS half of what the local market dictates, you'd be up a creek. High quality candidates wouldn't even waste their time applying. The applicants you'd get would be inferior in one way or another (or multiple ways!). At the end of the day, you'd be unhappy with whatever fifth-tier candidate you hired, so now you have to undertake another expensive search, and significantly increase the pay to make the position attractive to qualified candidates. Never mind the damage a poor HOS will cause and has to be undone--often an expensive project.


Now substitute "Teacher" for HOS and change the numbers to fit. You'll get the exact same result.

Except the FAILURE to act on that front is steadily hollowing out the teaching profession and driving promising young people away from it.

It's like spending $100K on a car then putting cheap gas in that wrecks the engine performance. But will the privates ever do anything about it?

Of course not. Teachers don't make headlines with new buildings. We just do the fundamental business for the school in them.
Anonymous
Post 01/22/2025 16:59     Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:As a private school employee/parent, I can tell you first hand that the HoS makes $500+, and has free housing, and probably some other benefits. However, when our school was raising money for a new building, the HoS donated a year's salary to the construction. So while they make a lot, I believe they are expected to be generous back to the school when needed. Just my 2 cents.



LOL, I will guarantee this didn’t happen.
Anonymous
Post 01/22/2025 15:03     Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You sound clueless. The job market for these roles is what it is. Would you like this school to find someone who will do it for less?


Not sure how much it is market driven but vanity driven. HOS didn't make anything like these salaries in the 1990s. They made comfortable incomes but something shifted in the last 20 years and somehow schools started to equivalate being a HOS with being a CEO. Same with non profits, they saw salaries of senior leaderships soar into similar territories. I see it as a form of insider grift among a certain class rather than anything market driven.


it is absolutely market driven, because nonprofits couldn't hold on to good leaders paying them peanuts. Effective leaders left nonprofits after short stints because no matter how passionate you are about the cause, you still have bills to pay. Nonprofits couldn't find good candidates because of the pay. It took years and years of Boards asking "why can't we find and retain good leadership?" before they were finally willing to admit that pay was the root of the problem. It's taken another 20+ years for nonprofits to similarly recognize that it applies to all levels of staff, not just senior leaders and finally start paying people what they're worth, although there are still holdouts. A recent client of mine in a major southern metro really thought they were going to get a development director with 10+ years experience across all areas of fundraising for $50,000 (and absolute joke benefits, but that's another story).

Big nonprofits, including large independent schools, really do need CEO leaders. These are complex organizations. And what I tell my clients is you may be a nonprofit, but you're a business. You need to act like one. Is it possible that some schools are wildly overpaying their HOS? Yeah. But that's true at for-profit business, too. Even if you somehow successfully led a revolt at your current school and convinced them to pay a new HOS half of what the local market dictates, you'd be up a creek. High quality candidates wouldn't even waste their time applying. The applicants you'd get would be inferior in one way or another (or multiple ways!). At the end of the day, you'd be unhappy with whatever fifth-tier candidate you hired, so now you have to undertake another expensive search, and significantly increase the pay to make the position attractive to qualified candidates. Never mind the damage a poor HOS will cause and has to be undone--often an expensive project.
Anonymous
Post 01/22/2025 14:46     Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Who cares if it is right or wrong? Can people just continue to snoop into the salary of the heads of school at every private school in the area?


You can access the 990 forms of independent schools that aren't run by a church on ProPublica. Google "School Name 990" and it should the first result, or otherwise near the top. Or, go to ProPublica's nonprofit explorer page (https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/) and type in the name. Part VII (pages 7-8) will list "Officers, Directors, Trustees, Key Employees, and Highest Compensated Employees." The head of school will always be listed here.


My problem is I want to know the salary of the HOS of the religious schools in DC


Those are shielded, and there's no way for the public to know.
Anonymous
Post 01/22/2025 13:39     Subject: private school head are paid what?????
As a private school employee/parent, I can tell you first hand that the HoS makes $500+, and has free housing, and probably some other benefits. However, when our school was raising money for a new building, the HoS donated a year's salary to the construction. So while they make a lot, I believe they are expected to be generous back to the school when needed. Just my 2 cents.
Anonymous
Post 01/22/2025 12:39     Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You sound clueless. The job market for these roles is what it is. Would you like this school to find someone who will do it for less?


Not sure how much it is market driven but vanity driven. HOS didn't make anything like these salaries in the 1990s. They made comfortable incomes but something shifted in the last 20 years and somehow schools started to equivalate being a HOS with being a CEO. Same with non profits, they saw salaries of senior leaderships soar into similar territories. I see it as a form of insider grift among a certain class rather than anything market driven.


Potato/potata. It’s the market.


I guarantee you can find replacements at half the salary. It can't be any harder than a principal at a large public school who makes a fraction of these salaries.

You can create your own artificial market. It's still insider grifting one way or another, you scratch my back and I'll scratch your back.
Anonymous
Post 01/22/2025 11:35     Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You sound clueless. The job market for these roles is what it is. Would you like this school to find someone who will do it for less?


Not sure how much it is market driven but vanity driven. HOS didn't make anything like these salaries in the 1990s. They made comfortable incomes but something shifted in the last 20 years and somehow schools started to equivalate being a HOS with being a CEO. Same with non profits, they saw salaries of senior leaderships soar into similar territories. I see it as a form of insider grift among a certain class rather than anything market driven.


Potato/potata. It’s the market.
Anonymous
Post 01/22/2025 11:20     Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:You sound clueless. The job market for these roles is what it is. Would you like this school to find someone who will do it for less?


Not sure how much it is market driven but vanity driven. HOS didn't make anything like these salaries in the 1990s. They made comfortable incomes but something shifted in the last 20 years and somehow schools started to equivalate being a HOS with being a CEO. Same with non profits, they saw salaries of senior leaderships soar into similar territories. I see it as a form of insider grift among a certain class rather than anything market driven.
Anonymous
Post 01/22/2025 07:12     Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:Field School head makes 700k. why do they need to ask for donations. I am curious what other think ehads should make. I though school were non profits so why are they getting CEO salerries?

What does other heads make?


You also don’t seem to know anything about high functioning nonprofit leadership either.

God bless.