By Scott McCaffrey – Published November 15, 2024

Dr. Michelle Reid is going to stick around as superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools.

Though her existing contract was set to run through June 2026, the Fairfax County School Board voted yesterday (Thursday) to give Reid a new four-year contract that could bring her annual salary close to a half-million dollars by its conclusion.

Starting with a base pay of $424,146, the new 10-page agreement will keep Reid in charge of Virginia’s largest school division through June 2028, unless the two sides opt to part ways beforehand.

“We are thankful for the dynamic, focused, and thoughtful leadership Dr. Reid has demonstrated since joining FCPS,” School Board Chair Karl Frisch (Providence District) said in a press release. “Her work has elevated FCPS to new heights by forging stronger relationships with families, students, staff, and the community while focusing on innovative ways to enhance academic expectations and achievement.”

During her first two years as superintendent, a tenure that began as FCPS was still recovering from closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, Reid has worked hard at “addressing issues where we had fallen short and that we needed to improve,” Dranesville District School Board member Robyn Lady said.

According to FCPS, Reid’s accomplishments so far have included expanding its athletic programs, overhauling school meal offerings, and setting new academic goals for all students to read by third grade and enroll in algebra by eighth grade.

Lady said she anticipates that, under the superintendent’s leadership, “we will [again] be the Fairfax County Public Schools that we once were.”

“You came in during a very tumultuous time,” Braddock District School Board member Rachna Sizemore Heizer said, praising Reid for “the hard work you have done to heal our community.”

“You’ve taken on everything we’ve thrown at you,” Sizemore Heizer said. “We’re already seeing results.”

The superintendent didn’t speak in the immediate aftermath of the 12-0 vote, but later in the meeting, she expressed “a heartfelt thank you to the board, to each of you, for your confidence.”

Reid headed the Northshore School District in Washington state when School Board members voted 9-3 in April 2021 to hire her to succeed Scott Brabrand. Brabrand opted not to seek a new contract after leading FCPS for five years; he currently serves as executive director of the Virginia Association of School Superintendents.

The hiring was a major jump up for Reid: the Northshore district has about 22,000 students, while Fairfax’s has 180,000.

Her initial contract in 2022 called for a base first-year salary of $380,000. While the new contract doesn’t provide a raise beyond what FCPS staff receive, it does include enhanced deferred-compensation provisions, Frisch said at yesterday’s meeting.

There also are a number of benefits typical of leadership positions, from a vehicle allowance to stipends for phones and other electronics.

The contract doesn’t lock the parties into an indissoluble four-year marriage, establishing conditions under which either side could back out of the partnership:

The school board could fire Reid “for sufficient cause,” but only after a hearing.
If the school board terminates Reid’s employment without cause, she would be owed a payment equal to the lesser of a year’s salary or the remainder of her contract.
If Reid decides to leave before her contract expires, she would be required to give the school system six months’ notice.

For the four-year tenure, Reid’s salary will rise at the same combination of cost-of-living and “step” (seniority) increases given to FCPS staff. Should that average 5% per year, Reid would be making approximately $491,000 in the final year of her contract.

Reid’s current $424,146 salary puts her ahead of the new chancellor of New York City’s school system, Melissa Aviles Ramos, who earns $414,799. With nearly 1 million students — almost six times that of the FCPS, New York’s public school system is the largest in the nation.

Reid is still below the pay level of Alberto Carvalho, head of the Los Angeles Unified School District, who earned a base pay of $440,000 — $90,000 more than his predecessor — when he was hired to lead the nation’s second largest public school district in 2022. No more recent salary figures for Carvalho have been reported.

A 2022 survey of 2,443 superintendents by the School Superintendents Association reported median earnings of $156,468, although compensation varied significantly depending on the size of a school district.

Fairfax County School Board members uniformly praised their superintendent’s performance at yesterday’s meeting, suggesting her compensation seems appropriate to the skills required for the job.

“The bench for superintendents is not deep,” Franconia District Representative Marcia St. John-Cunning said.

Frisch said Reid brings “dynamic, thoughtful and focused” attention to detail “to get it right or get it better,” but he still sees room for improvement, as FCPS continues to emerge from the shadow of the pandemic and a host of other challenges.

“Everything is not perfect,” Frisch said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

FairfaxGOP originally wrote this and published it as $424,000 Salary, FCPS Superintendent Secures Early, 4-year Contract Extension