The principal of a Midlands charter school makes nearly double what some area administrators make to oversee significantly fewer students, documents obtained by The State show.
With a yearly salary of $322,544, Brian Newsome, the principal of Gray Collegiate Academy is one of the state’s highest paid public school administrators. The charter school, using taxpayer dollars, was paying Newsome nearly double what the highest paid principals in both the Lexington 2 and Lexington-Richland 5 school districts were making during the most recent school year.
Not only does Newsome earn far and above his peers, his annual salary is in line with that of the state’s highest paid superintendent, William Royster, who leads the Greenville County school district system of 87 schools and nearly 80,000 students. Newsome, who was making just $5,000 less than Royster at the start of the 2024 school year, oversaw 932 students for Gray, around 1% of Greenville’s student body…