The highest-paid teacher in Prince William County, Brentsville High’s Sally Martin, has spent her career teaching students how to be successful in business.
Little did they know they could make more than $100,000 switching to her side of the classroom, where Martin made $112,000. She’s one of 14 county teachers who now earn more than six figures.
Teachers of physical education, math, business, prekindergarten, algebra, Spanish, reading, consumer sciences or pretty much anything now can earn more than some school principals.
None of the teachers The Examiner interviewed about their six-figure salaries ever imagined making that much money in a profession long viewed as low-paying, but they say that it is a function of a rising cost of living and the expanding role of the teacher.
Fairfax County resource teacher Susan Socha began her career in 1968 and over the last 40 years has developed into what she calls “an old-timer who loves technology.”
She teaches algebra online, leads continuing education classes for teachers and runs an online summer school math program that keeps her working all year.
“I think there is an opportunity for teachers to do well, but you have to work hard,” said longtime Prince William County teacher Margaret Gnadt.
At Minnieville Elementary School, she is a reading tutor, and she is a coordinator of early education reading programs and a coach of kindergarten and first-grade teachers. Those roles have her working nearly six weeks longer than the average classroom teacher, which helps bump up her paycheck.
And those roles can be short-lived. Woodbridge High School family and consumer sciences teacher Pamela Emert crossed the barrier last year after picking up an extra daily class, on top of her duties as a department chair and sponsor for two student organizations. Despite a nearly 5 percent raise this year, Emert will fall back below the $100,000 mark next school year because the school no longer needs the extra class.
