October 26, 2025
New Superintendent’s Employment Contract Released
4-Year Employment Contract Reveals Numerous Perks
SMITHFIELD – The Johnston County Board of Education has released the employment contract for Dr. David Pearce who will officially be sworn in on July 1 as the new superintendent of Johnston County Public Schools.
Dr. Pearce most recently served as the Assistant Superintendent of Administrative and Auxiliary Services under Superintendent Dr. Eric Bracy.
Dr. Bracy’s last day on the job is today (June 30). He begins work tomorrow as Superintendent of Cumberland County Schools.
Pearce was selected as the new school leader on June 17, in a 6-to-1 vote.
Under the terms of his four-year thirteen-page Employment Contract, Dr. Pearce will be paid a starting salary of $235,000 per year and may receive a 4 percent salary increase annually.
The superintendent will be eligible to receive up to $20,000 in performance pay annually for reaching goals and for improvements in JCPS.
He will receive annual leave and sick leave plus an additional 15 days of paid leave annually.
JCPS will pay the full premium for medical insurance coverage, including dental and vision for Dr. Pearce and his eligible dependents under the state health insurance plan. This will include Dr. Pearce’s spouse if she is not eligible for a health insurance plan covered by her employer.
The Board will deposit $200 each month of the contract term into a flexible spending account for use by Dr. Pearce, his spouse, and his dependents as permitted by law.
The Board agreed to pay $10,000 to a tax-deferred annuity program of the Superintendent’s choosing upon completion of each 12 months of service under the contract.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT
In addition, the school board agreed to cover the cost of membership in professional and civic organizations the Superintendent feels are important to maintain and improve his professional skills and civic involvement.
Dr. Pearce will receive $900 per month in lieu of reimbursement for business travel within Johnston County. He will reimbursed for business travel outside of Johnston County after submitting itemized expense statements.
The initial employment contract is for a four-year term, July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2029. The school board will provide the Superintendent with a mid-year performance evaluation by October 31, 2025. By October 31 of each year beginning in 2026, the board will provide Dr. Pearce a written annual evaluation of his performance, unless otherwise agreed upon by board members and Dr. Pearce. The contract states the evaluation will take place in closed session and will be considered confidential, as allowed by law.
The Board may terminate the contract at its option with a 90-day written notice. If the contract is terminated, as severance pay, Dr. Pearce will receive compensation equal to two years’ salary.
After a successful performance evaluation after the first year of the contract, the Board will extend the contract term one additional year, at which time the severance pay will be for the remainder of the contract.
Under the terms of the employment contract, if Dr. Pearce wishes to resign, he must provide a minimum 60 days written notice.
In comparison, Dr. Bracy’s most recent published salary was $280,406.
An official swearing-in ceremony for Dr. Pearce will take place on July 1st at 9:00 a.m.
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24 Comments
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Imagine all that extra stuff the board is paying for going to help teachers pay for supplies so they don’t have to buy out of their own paychecks instead of going to one man.
Somewhere east of 95 the Good Ole Boys are celebrating.
The salary, benefits, and performance incentives are all in line with what other superintendents in similar-sized districts earn across North Carolina. Charlotte-Mecklenburg pays over $300K per year. There’s nothing excessive or unusual here. It’s standard for the position. People are making noise over something that’s pretty typical. Why is this news?
Nothing New Here is the problem, when you think every similar district should pay the same. Giving these large salary, benefit and buyout packages without any idea what performance will be. Pay should be depending on results not what others are paid. Pay should be less than half that, with performance tied to the remainder on the salary. We should stop giving employment parachutes before results.
It is dependent results. His resume and work in JoCo is evidence. If you paid any attention you would have seen his performance for years now. It’s a benefits package he has already earned.
His performance, resume and work in JoCo certainly is evidence and it has been failure after failure, after failure. I invite you to read my article about him.
Not every time someone “comes home” to serve their community does it mean it’s the Good Ole Boy system at work. It gets old seeing that assumption made every single time.
What do you mean come home.He has failed at every administrative position he has held. He never left.
Evidence proves otherwise, stop the lies.
If that is a response to me then I invite you to click on my name and read my article about him.
What is excessive is that this type of salary is the norm for a Superintendent. Additionally, when you look at the number of Assistant Superintendents, Associate Superintendents and associates for the individual Departments. Each of these titles make an excellent salary, way above any of the teachers. A business could not operate like Public Schools do, they would go bankrupt. Administrative overhead needs to be reduced.
Education Administrators are public facing servants to their district 24/7/365 and are scrutinized with every decision made. Education required and experience expected took years and money to acquire. This is true of all public education administrators across most states. Don’t know this particular Superintendent, but with what this position deals with on a daily basis (as do most of those in NC Public Schools), he will earn every penny. Walk a mile in those shoes before criticizing or demonstrating jealousy through uninformed comments.
Ok, I’ll do it. All they do is sit in meetings and talk.
Very well spoken
Do away with the superintendent position altogether and spread all that kush money to the teachers where it belongs. They do the work!
So Bracy was hired at 195k and we complained about that. Now you hand pick a guy and pay him 235K?
That’s a lot of money to pay someone who was principal at the WORST PERFORMING HIGH SCHOOL IN THE COUNTY. If I’m a JCPS teacher or principal, I’m trying to fail at everything outside of making the right friends in the county to get a contract like this one day.
Not just the county, it was the entire state, twice! It would have been 3 times but Renfrow gave him a cushy job at Central office.
$200/month bucks for the wife and kids? Is that standard?
Until the entire BOE is voted out and true patriots voted in, nothing will change.
Are you kidding me? It’s the so-called “Patriots” that voted this man into his position without a national search.
So you hire someone for a position and pay him over a quarter million salary and the. Say if you do your job right that your hired to do then we give you these big bonuses everytime. What the h*ll is going on
Even if he does a terrible job and with his administrative track record he probably will, he still gets paid.
Click my name and read my article about him.
This is a quote from a principal to a teacher years ago. Give the school system an honest day’s work and go home happy. Like wise, to every job I know, give it all you have. Results are not your concern. Honesty is.