Staffing levels and compensation studies so far show the Wake County Public School System is understaffed at the district level and that many of its workers are underpaid compared to the same or similar job in the private sector and education industry in the Raleigh-Durham region, the district says.
The school board commissioned the studies months ago as it grapples with turnover in some positions and contends with concerns about teacher pay.
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Leaders presented the latest findings during the school board's budget and finance committee Tuesday, and the committee will discuss the results in depth at a future meeting.
"We are not in alignment where recruitment is awfully difficult, particularly when we look at positions in maintenance," Superintendent Robert Taylor told WRAL News after the meeting.
The district has struggled with maintenance and operations, having issues with malfunctioning heating, ventilation and air conditioning, as well as plumbing. Part of those issues are due to the school board's long-time deprioritization of maintenance and operations in favor of building new schools and investments in academic programs, support positions and worker pay.
The pay study shows Wake's teacher and certified staff pay is generally on par with the districts it chose for comparison.
The study found that Wake's salary schedules were similar to the 50th percentile of the comparison districts' salary schedules.
The comparison districts included Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, Durham Public Schools, Guilford County Schools, Johnston County Public Schools, Fairfax County Public Schools (Virginia) and Gwinnett County Public Schools (Georgia). It also compared, when applicable, to Wake County government.
A WRAL analysis last month showed the district was not paying teachers on par, per the basic salary schedule, with metropolitan areas outside of North Carolina with similar costs of living. Those included Nashville, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Richmond (Virginia) and Virginia Beach.
The district's pay study focused on nearby districts and districts of comparable student size, Taylor said. Wake enrolls about 160,000 students and is a top-15 school district in the nation in terms of enrollment.
School Board Chairman Tyler Swanson said he was interested in more comparisons with other southern school districts.
He noted the investment in neighboring Georgia.
"The state of Georgia has done phenomenal in investing in teacher compensation," Swanson said.
Georgia also includes automatic cost-of-living adjustments to teacher retirement, which is not part of the study, said David Neter, the district's chief business officer.
The pay study also shows that the district isn't paying many of its non-instructional employees wages that are comparable to those of other education industry positions in the Raleigh and Durham areas. Those include health professionals and technicians.
One key area where the district falls short in pay is in pay for bus drivers. Comparable agency pay for bus drivers, which includes public transit, ranges from $68,900 to $97,000, according to the study. The district has struggled to hire bus drivers, though it's been able to cover all routes for the past few years. It's also slimmed down some transit offerings for students who live close to their schools. On Tuesday, district officials said they had 30 more bus driver vacancies this September than they did last September.
The school system pays between $38,584 and $46,384 for a bus driver. The district also pays significantly less to accountants, facilities managers, data analysts, administrative assistants and many others. Compared to the area salary minimums for certain positions, Wake pays more than $20,000 less for an HVAC master craftsman, more than $10,000 less for a budget analyst, more than $40,000 less for a senior budget analyst and more than $20,000 less for an accountant, for example.
"Those are the things that make the recruitment difficult," Taylor said.
The district has also contracted with an outside company to study its central office staffing, the preliminary results of which it presented earlier this year.
The study shows the district has fewer central office employees than districts it chose for comparison. Those included Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Dallas Independent School District, Fairfax County Public Schools, Gwinnett County Public Schools and Montgomery County Public Schools (Maryland). All of those districts spend more per student than Wake County, which uses state, local and federal funds. Most of those counties have higher costs of living. Fairfax and Montgomery counties are among the wealthiest counties in the nation.