Wake County Supt. Jim Merrill could get $12,397 more in pay

Wake County Superintendent Jim Merrill could receive $12,397 in salary increases and bonuses this year – about a 4.5-percent increase over his current compensation.

The Wake County school board is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a $6,302 salary increase and a $6,095 performance bonus for Merrill based on his work during the 2014-15 school year. Merrill, 64, would also get his contact extended a year, through June 2019.

Merrill’s supporters say the pay increase recognizes the good work he’s put in leading a school system that’s both the largest in North Carolina and the 16th largest in the nation.

“We all feel that he has done everything we have asked him to do,” school board Vice Chairman Tom Benton said Monday. “He has done it in an exemplary way. He has brought a great deal of not just stability but forward-thinking ideas based on solid research and experiences as a superintendent.”

Board members also note that Merrill, who started as superintendent in August 2013, didn’t get a raise last year.

“He’s done a good job,” school board Chairwoman Christine Kushner said. “We have not adjusted his salary since he arrived and it’s been more than two years.”

Merrill could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.

Merrill’s raise comes at a time when the school board is giving raises to all 18,000 school employees, largely due to a $44.6 million funding increase from the Wake County Board of Commissioners. Classroom teachers are slated to get raises in amounts between $875 and $3,202 this year.

Terry Stoops, director of education research studies for the John Locke Foundation, questioned whether Merrill’s raise could have been better used elsewhere.

“I think that every teacher in the system could think of something better to do with the money that’s awarded to Merrill,” he said.

The increase would raise Merrill’s base salary from $275,000 a year to $281,302, making him one of the state’s highest-paid superintendents. Alamance-Burlington Superintendent Bill Harrison gets $330,000 a year in compensation split between a $245,000 base salary and $85,000 provided by local groups.

Merrill was hired after the board fired Tony Tata in September 2012. Merrill had worked 16 years in Wake before becoming superintendent of Alamance-Burlington Schools and later Virginia Beach City Public Schools.

Since no raise was given last year, Merrill’s contract was modified to say he’d be eligible in future years to receive performance-based compensation of as much as 5 percent of his salary. Up to 2.5 percent could be paid as a salary increase and up to 2.5 percent as a bonus.

Merrill’s increase was based on his performance on goals set by the board. School attorneys said the list of Merrill’s goals is not a public record and declined to release them.

Benton said the entire board evaluated Merrill on managerial and instructional issues.

Kushner pointed to performance gains among students, implementation of innovative projects such as the redesign of the academic program at Knightdale High School and the development of the new five-year strategic plan.

Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, said Merrill has been targeted at improving high school graduation rates and academics.

“Any superintendent who works for a large, very fast-growing district has a huge challenge,” she said. “His experience in the district in the past is paying off in the present.”

Benton added that while the board has received no indication that Merrill is looking to leave, he’d be the kind of superintendent who would be contacted by search firms.

“One of the things we have to be aware of is the competitive nature of superintendents’ jobs,” Benton said.

This story was originally published October 19, 2015 at 5:42 PM with the headline "Wake County Supt. Jim Merrill could get $12,397 more in pay."