The Board of Education of Harford County has selected Dr. Robert Tomback of Baltimore County as Superintendent of Schools. Following a rigorous screening and interview process designed by the Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE), as well as stakeholder input into the selection, the Board determined that Dr. Tomback best meets their criteria for the next superintendent in Harford County.
“Dr. Tomback will bring a fresh look at strengthening our academic and instructional programs to help increase our student achievement”, said Board President Patrick L. Hess. All members of the Board expressed support for Dr. Tomback and enthusiasm about working as a team to provide the best possible education for every Harford County student.
“Robert Tomback has a strong commitment to students and staff and I’m certain he will continue the great work that has taken place in the Harford County public schools over the past decade,” said Nancy S. Grasmick, State Superintendent of Schools. “He brings with him a list of accomplishments during his tenure with the Baltimore County Public Schools. We, at the Maryland State Department of Education, look forward to working with him in his new role.”
Dr. Tomback earned his Doctor of Philosophy, Human Development Education at the University of Maryland. He serves as Area Assistant Superintendent, Baltimore County and is instructional and administrative leader for 34 schools and approximately 25,000 students. Before becoming assistant superintendent in 2007, he was a principal, executive assistant, assistant principal, department chair and social studies teacher. Dr. Tomback is excited about the appointment and is looking forward to working with the Harford County Board, students, staff, and community.
The Board of Education members and Dr. Tomback will hold a Media Conference today, June 3, at 4:00 p.m. at the A. A. Roberty Building in Bel Air. The appointment, effective July 1, 2009, and contract signing will be made on June 8, 2009 during the Board business meeting. All are invited to attend the Board meeting to welcome Dr. Tomback to Harford County Public Schools.
A prior interview with Dr. Tomback, in which The Dagger participated, can be found here:
For what it’s worth, Dr. Tomback was very nearly the least palatable superintendent choice among voters in our recent Dagger poll.
Brian….doesn’t surprise me. We can only hope this gentleman has some COMMON SENSE since there is very little of that in the current BOE/HCPS leadership.
Reported on WBAL that he is going to be signing a $190,000/4 year contract. It is amazing what many of these superintendents are now making. MSDE put out Salary Survey for 2008-2009. Also the principals in Harford County are making $126,00 and looks like Vice Principals at $110,000. Could the Dagger do a story on how many people in HCPS are making over $100,000??
Elaine Superintendent’s are not cheap! You get what you pay for.
Elaine, just a guess, but I think most of the people that work in central office make over $100,000 a year. Then you understand why many teachers want to leave teaching to become administrators. What do “Teacher mentors” and “instructional facilitators” make? The Sun did a story about a year ago showing that HCPS had more adminstrators per pupil than any other Baltimore area district with the exception of Baltimore City.
My husband was an administrator for 6 years in HC (secondary)…he made in the 80’s. He has been out of the system for a couple of years so maybe there have been increases? I believe the salary range varies between elementary and secondary school principals secondary to the after school requirements being greater in secondary education.
Teacher Mentors make no more than a teacher, The position is a teaching position with a Department Chair stipened. AP I make 85000, APII-IV make anywhere from 90-95000. Instructional facilitators are paid close to a principals salary which can run from 100000-110000.
Wondering what salary Dr. Tomback earns now in Balto County? I suspect this is competitive which is the reality of the situation. And it is true ” we get what we pay for”, but this most definitely should apply to teachers also. We need to attract the best to Harford Co, — we should pay our teachers competitively.
I would be interested in reading more about Harford County and its student to admin ratio, particularly if nearly all those earning > $100,000 are in the central office. I hate to think we lose talented teachers to admin only b/c of $$. Would the Dagger be able to provide us this information? Why does HCPS have a higher ratio?
In defense of school based administrators, unless anyone of us has done their job not sure we can speak to what $$ they actually deserve.Their seniority, experience, education etc all play a factor.
At least on the high school level they put in a lot of hours just based on after school activities, sports etc.
You do lose talented teachers to admin because of money. I am currently dealing with the hard realization that I am going to need to leave the classroom soon to afford my newly growing family. I consider myself a good teacher and love the classroom, but a 30000 dollar jump in salary is too enticing.
Great teachers often leave because of money. I couldn’t teach if my spouse didn’t have the job he has (I am not presuming that I am a great teacher). If you look around, that may be part of the reason HCPS has so few teachers with less than five years of experience. It’s really expensive to set up an apartment and buy work clothing and pay for the car when you first are out of school and usually single. The work hours are incredible. The salary–nobody is getting rich.
I don’t have any problem with principals’ and the superintendent’s salaries. Try to find a businessman (even in Harford County) who has 5000 employees and managing whatever the school budget is who ONLY makes $190K. I don’t think you will find one. And I always felt as though when people groused about Dr. Haas’s salary, it was partly because she was a woman.
With any luck, having a supt with some high school experience should shift the focus a bit. The kids need a solid foundation, but they need to be ready for either college or work when they graduate.
The problem with teacher salaries is there’s no over lap. You may have a 30 year veteran teacher with 2 master’s degrees and national board certification and that person will be maxed out at 75K a year. But then you could have someone who has only taught 3 years, get thier masters in administration and they start out at 85K. There really should not be that much of a pay difference at that juncture. It really makes career teachers feel pretty low when you get some young buck 29 years old (usually a minority because of how HCPS is scared shitless of the NAACP) walking around like he’s the man when he really doesn’t know the first thing about his job, or how to teach, or how to lead people instructionally.
I’ve been in the system 22 years. I’ve seen it all. Today’s administrators are ONLY in it for the money. TRUST ME! They could care less about community, students and instruction. In HCPS, the less you interact with kids, the more you make. And when you really suck at teaching they make you an administrator….and when you really suck at that, they move you to central office.
ELECTED BOARD NOW!!!!!!!
i think administrators need a minimum of 5 years teaching experience. and I do not think the teacher you describe makes 75,000
The salaries were the maximum they could make but it would be interesting to see what the ranges are and where the levels of experience. I never said superintendents don’t work hard and never made an editorial comment about the salary – that is was is being reported. I will say that Charles Ecker (Carroll County Superintendent and former Howard County Executive) makes less than that ($180,000) and has stated publicly over the years that he was trying to save the county money. Salaries for superintendents in MANY (but not all) counties in Maryland have risen considerably.
The teacher described would be earning $79,688.
They would be eligible for an extra $500 if they earn a doctorate.
Thank you PDC…I was ball parking the figure….
….and Cdev….a thousand apologies for being 4688.00 of the actual figure…..but my point is still made. The salary of a master teacher is still less than a 1st year assistant principal.
1st- all admins I know have a masters +, so the education level is the same. The difference is the type of work done by the individual.
For the most part teachers get in 1/2 hour before school and leave 1 hour after school(There are some the put in more time and less time). My assistant principals are there 9-10 hours a day, answers emails on the weekends, works during the snow days, works during the summer (I know they get vacation), and deal with the most difficult students daily.
I have my masters +60 with and hold an Admin. I and II endursment. I don’t think I will ever take the step into administration because administrator are that…administrators. They are expected to have long-er hours and tougher work (not to deminish the work teachers do). They do all this with administrative pay, like those working at Verizon or Ford. If they get paid too much perhaps you should work as an admin. and tell us about how the job is so easy and you are over paid. Like in the real world–I truly believe that good administrators deserve the pay.
It’d be interesting to see from where the administrators at the central office came….
Where is the highest concentration of male teachers in education–both elementary and secondary? Would anyone care to guess gym? Could the Dagger dig this up?
This may be a logical fallacy I’m entertaining here, but most men are the main providers for their families, and wouldn’t it be easier to support your family if you moved up the chain with an admin degree? Is this how we get gym teachers and coaches running HCPS?
Really, who gets into administration because they want to better the education system? And do you think these administrative degrees are representative of the kind of leadership and reform the public education system really needs? Or just another example of the perpetual top-down brainwashing of our education system. I don’t know, I got my masters in my subject area.
A Freedom of Information request would get the salaries for everyone in HCPS, but I do not know how to make the request.
You have to pay for a Freedom of Information request and a very involved parent in Anne Arundel County did just that and the school system sent around a letter naming that individual and telling teachers he wanted to know their salaries. He wasn’t interested in individual salaries but basically same information we are discussing here. It was done for spite. Maybe the tax protestors can get a copy for publication because people have a right to know what their taxes are paying for.
Also many “administrators” aren’t in central office but are folded into the schools as “teachers” so you would have to differentiate. A good principal can make a huge difference in a school but little recourse to get rid of them when they do a bad job and/or a very bad fit in a school. Perhaps Dr. Tomback can talk about the philosophy of secondary principals and longevity in a high school since he was at the same school for 12 years.
Here’s a fun link: http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/NR/rdonlyres/0C24833A-9CBE-4C09-9010-B7BD88F4B1E0/18996/FACT_BOOK_20072008_123092.pdf
Don’t be scared, it’s the “factbook” for Maryland Public schools. This is from 2007, but here are some interesting facts. Teachers average $57K but can go as high as $79K. Principals get $107K. We have 364 Non instructional staff that’s principals, admin, supervisors, central office types (read non-instructional) but this does not include maintenance workers, secretaries, or cafeteria ladies. If a principal makes over $100K, then most of the rest of these folks do too. I’m still trying to sift out if we have more or less admin than other school districts, but that data isn’t readily apparent. As a side note, 22% of HCPS teachers are male. Thanks to Liz Bowie from the Sun who gave me this link. There’s some interesting stuff here.
Marquis. I never thought pay made it that high but I am wrong when I did look at a HCPS pay scale you are correct although it would assume that said teacher got a Master’s plus and the Board certification stipend is not forever. But either way you are correct.
Archtypical probably correct to a degree but I know many Phys Ed teachers who would object to the use of the word Gym Teacher. A Gym is a place.
The Aegis used to print by name the salary of every teacher once upon a time.
Enough about pay because if you put in the time as a teacher you surely aren’t getting what you deserve. A true teacher that cares for his kids and goes above and beyond, is never getting the economic compensation they deserve.
I find the BOE just puts more expectations on teachers but never take anything away. Oh, spend on this time on these Professional Learnin Communities (School PDA’s) and while you are at it we will do a Block Schedule so we can get you to teach more classes and students and by the way, forget the pay raise. I would like to see them take away the PDA’s and say we took something away since you will be teaching more kids.
But, I wonder how long till our new superintendent starts to hopefully make some commonsense changes. Starting with: LICW!!!! You guys knew I was going to hit on that one!! Other than that do we know if this guy is for or against the block schedule as Harford County has it???????????????
I believe he said he would have to look at it. Which tells me he has an open mind. Which is good. We all know teachers will never get what they deserve but when people bash them as living high on the government hog and insist they get benifits and compensation they do not deserve they need to understand what goes into that job.
Some teachers don’t get paid what they deserve, some do, and some should be fired.
If they want to fix the system, they can start by acting like professionals, not organized labor, and getting rid of collective bargaining. As long as they are willing to work under the socialistic system that they have chosen, there is little incentive to excel and no opportunity to reward those who do.
Phil I agree but if you want to attract the type of people to the job you describe you have to be willing to pay them that much. To date evidence does not indicate that anyone is except for the one charter school in New York.
My wife is a teacher and while she does make good money overall (when you add in her extra stipends for dept. chair and various extra-curricular advisory positions along with having her masters +30), it really doesn’t compensate her for the amount of hours she puts in just at the school let alone at home. Most days she’s in the school by 6:45 am and doesn’t leave until 6 pm or later (and it’s not uncommon for her to be there until 7 or 8 pm.) Fridays she usually leaves “early” around 4:30-5. We make about the same amount, but the difference is I generally put in about 40 hrs/week. If I worked as many hrs/week as she does I’d easily make another $20k/yr (probably more.)
Some administrators are way overpaid and are pretty much a waste of space and others are very good and earn their money. Imo, the position that is by far the biggest waste of money and space in the county are instructional facilitators (or whatever they’re called.) Basically they’re teachers who don’t teach and earn almost as much as administrators do.
Yeah, this guy Robert Tomback is an idiot. Just because he thinks Hrford County should snuff up to snow doesn’t mean they are qualified tomost of the time. After all, it snows much more in upstate New York, so obviously they are more prepared. This ass should be fired.