Mortellus
Feb 4, 2020
Teachers who helped build the Academy's Grammar School described sacrificing personal time, purchasing classroom materials with their own money, and watching colleagues leave for better-paying schools. The Board acknowledged they were underpaid but offered no immediate solution.
What happened: On February 4, 2020, teachers at Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy publicly confronted the school's Board of Directors over years of compensation below North Carolina's state teacher salary schedule. Three Grammar School educators—Rachel Elder, Heather Roche, and Stephanie Blanton—addressed the Board during its regular meeting at the Academy's upper campus in Avondale. Their statements described a workforce increasingly frustrated by stagnant compensation, uneven raises, personal financial sacrifices, and the departure of experienced colleagues. Several of the speakers had helped establish TJCA's Grammar School. They described years spent building classrooms, developing curriculum, and supporting the Academy through its early growth, only to find themselves earning less than teachers with comparable experience at neighboring schools.
Their frustration centered on more than their individual paychecks. The teachers questioned why TJCA could undertake construction projects, expand athletics, and add administrative positions while continuing to pay experienced educators below the state's salary schedule.
Board Chair Ray Maxwell acknowledged the problem. He agreed that teachers had been underpaid for years but explained that the Academy was still attempting to recover from earlier financial difficulties while balancing competing institutional needs. Approximately ten teachers attended the meeting, according to contemporary reporting by The Daily Courier. The confrontation exposed a fundamental disagreement about the financial priorities of a school whose educational reputation depended heavily on the educators asking its leadership for better compensation.
What was established:
Rachel Elder: An Alumna Who Helped Build the Grammar School
Rachel Elder, a fifth-grade language arts teacher, began her remarks by recalling her history with Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy. She had entered TJCA as a ninth-grade student in 1999, during the school's founding year. After graduating, she attended college with the intention of returning to teach at her alma mater. When she joined the Grammar School, Elder recalled, the facilities and resources were limited. Her first classroom was shared with another teacher, another group of students, and a library. Available instructional materials consisted of a Core Knowledge handbook and a single language arts textbook.
Elder described assembling the classroom almost from scratch, finding desks, purchasing supplies, stocking classroom shelves with secondhand books, and spending evenings and weekends developing curriculum. She paid personally for items including curtains, posters, library books, shelving, and mathematics materials. In her remarks, preserved at considerable length in TJCA's official Board minutes, Elder emphasized that other founding educators had made similar sacrifices. Those same educators, she told the Board, were now leaving. Elder argued that the Academy's spending decisions communicated a troubling message about the relative importance of teachers.
She pointed to institutional investments in athletics, buildings, and administration while experienced classroom educators remained below the state salary scale. After more than two decades of identification with TJCA as both a student and an educator, Elder said she had begun considering employment elsewhere. Her testimony was not simply a complaint about salary. It was an account of a teacher who believed the institution she had helped create was no longer valuing the people responsible for its educational success.
Heather Roche: Falling Further Behind Despite Raises
Heather Roche, a second-grade teacher with 13 years of service at TJCA, described the financial consequences of the Academy's compensation decisions. Roche explained that she had entered teaching during a period of state budget restrictions and had remained near beginning-teacher compensation for several years. When state salary increases were subsequently intended to compensate teachers in her experience range, she said TJCA's approach left her short of the amount she expected. Roche reported that a previous adjustment should have amounted to approximately $6,000 for her circumstances, but the Academy distributed raises in a manner that limited her increase to $4,000.
By the 2019–2020 school year, she calculated that her compensation was approximately $3,000 below the state salary schedule for a teacher with her experience. Although Roche appreciated the increase she had received, she questioned why continued service at TJCA should mean falling behind educators elsewhere in Rutherford County. She emphasized her affection for the school, its students, and its academic expectations, while making clear that institutional loyalty could not indefinitely substitute for competitive compensation.
Stephanie Blanton: Thirteen Years of Lost Earnings and Retirement Contributions
Fourth-grade teacher Stephanie Blanton, another educator involved in establishing the Grammar School, focused on the longer-term consequences of below-scale pay. She questioned why TJCA expected its teachers to help maintain the academic performance of an A-rated school while declining to compensate many of them at the state's established salary levels. Blanton noted that nearby charter schools, including Lincoln Charter, Piedmont Community Charter, and Lake Lure Classical Academy, paid teachers according to the state scale. She also drew attention to the cumulative financial consequences of remaining below scale for more than a decade. Lower annual compensation affected not only her immediate household finances but also the amount she could contribute toward retirement while raising and educating her three daughters.
Blanton told the Board that experienced teachers had already left TJCA because they did not feel adequately valued. Her message was especially pointed because she and her colleagues wanted to remain. They were not seeking compensation above the state schedule. They were asking the Academy to meet the same benchmark that neighboring schools were already using.
Board Chair Ray Maxwell Acknowledges Teachers Were Underpaid
During the Chairman's Moment, Ray Maxwell responded to the educators' statements.
Rather than dispute their central complaint, Maxwell acknowledged that the Academy had underpaid teachers for years. He described the Board as attempting to recover from previous financial difficulties and stated that improvements had been made during the preceding two years. Maxwell also emphasized that the Academy faced competing financial obligations and could not resolve the compensation problem within a single budget year. The official minutes summarize his position as a commitment to balancing the needs of the entire school while attempting to improve salaries. His remarks are significant because they establish that TJCA's governing leadership acknowledged the compensation problem publicly. The disagreement was not over whether below-scale pay existed. It concerned how quickly the Board was willing or able to correct it, and which expenditures it considered most important.
School Construction and Other Spending Continued
The compensation dispute occurred during a period of substantial institutional investment.
TJCA was pursuing its 2020 Vision expansion project, which included new construction and improvements to school facilities. The February 4 Board minutes recorded construction progress, the development of a cafeteria expansion, and other anticipated facilities improvements.
During the same meeting, the Board approved approximately $9,795 for an upgraded school website and discussed amendments to financing arrangements involving Challenge Foundation Properties. At a February 18 special meeting, Maxwell described a $27 million USDA loan associated with TJCA's construction and refinancing arrangements, including more than $9 million intended to refinance Grammar School obligations at a lower interest rate.
These investments were not necessarily drawn from funds that could simply have been redirected into salaries. Nevertheless, their scale helps explain why teachers were questioning the Academy's priorities. For educators who had spent years buying classroom materials from their own paychecks, the school's continued expansion stood in sharp contrast to the Board's explanation that adequate teacher compensation would have to wait.
State Salary Requirements and Charter-School Discretion
North Carolina's state teacher salary schedule establishes compensation levels based principally on teaching experience and other qualifying factors. Traditional public-school districts are required to follow the state schedule for covered teaching positions. Charter schools have greater flexibility to determine their own compensation structures. TJCA was therefore not necessarily violating state law by paying teachers below the schedule used by traditional districts.
But legal discretion was not the issue the teachers raised. They argued that TJCA's academic expectations, competition for experienced educators, and longstanding reliance on teacher dedication justified compensation comparable to that of other public schools. Their appeal concerned institutional responsibility and financial priorities—not merely compliance with minimum legal requirements.
What was not established: The February 2020 records do not establish the total number of TJCA employees paid below scale, the Academy's aggregate salary shortfall, or precisely how much additional funding would have been required to bring all affected teachers to the state schedule.
The available documents also do not establish that a particular construction project or administrative expense directly prevented a specific teacher raise.
Original evidence:
The Daily Courier — TJCA teachers express angst for 'below scale'. Taylor Johnson, February 6, 2020, page A6. Contemporary reporting preserving extended statements from Rachel Elder, Heather Roche, Stephanie Blanton, and Board Chair Ray Maxwell.
The Daily Courier — TJCA teachers express angst for 'below scale'. February 11, 2020, page T1. Additional publication of the same reporting.
TJCA Board of Directors — February 4, 2020 Meeting Minutes. Preserves the teachers' public comments, Maxwell's response, and the Board's contemporaneous financial and construction discussions.
TJCA Board of Directors — February 18, 2020 Special Meeting Minutes. Documents the Board's discussion of major construction financing and employee concerns involving the proposed NC ACCESS grant.
TJCA Board of Directors — March 3, 2020 Meeting Minutes. Documents Elder's continued public appeal for teacher salaries to reach the state scale.
The Daily Courier — TJCA Board Passes on Grant. Taylor Johnson, March 5, 2020. Preserved in TJCA Truth's historical newspaper archive. Reports on subsequent Board financial deliberations and additional teacher expenditures for students.
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction — Compensation for Public School Employees. Explains the state salary framework and charter schools' compensation flexibility.
Subsequent developments: The teachers' concerns did not disappear after the February meeting.
At the March 3, 2020 Board meeting, Rachel Elder again addressed the directors. According to the official minutes, she thanked the Board for encouraging teachers to express their views and reiterated the hope that salaries would increase to the state scale. The Board's subsequent records document continuing institutional expenditures, including construction activity, equipment purchases, and, in June 2020, authorization of approximately $40,000 for an executive leadership search. Those decisions demonstrate that the Academy continued making significant financial commitments after the teachers' appeal. They do not, however, establish whether the compensation disparities identified in February were subsequently corrected.
The 2020 dispute also highlights a longer-running tension within TJCA's governance: how a publicly funded charter school balances facilities, administration, institutional growth, and the compensation of the employees delivering its educational program. The teachers' statements are particularly consequential because several had remained with the Academy throughout its growth and were describing financial sacrifices made over many years. TJCA Truth welcomes historical compensation schedules, Board budget discussions, Personnel and Finance Committee records, salary-adjustment announcements, and correspondence concerning efforts to bring experienced teachers to the state salary scale. Documents showing whether the Board eventually fulfilled the commitment expressed in February 2020 would be especially valuable.
Report from the community: The February 4 meeting produced unusually detailed firsthand testimony from teachers who had spent much of their professional lives at TJCA. Rachel Elder described helping create the Grammar School with limited resources, personally purchasing materials, and watching educators who helped establish the campus leave for better opportunities. Heather Roche described the experience of remaining below scale despite years of service and incremental salary increases. Stephanie Blanton connected the Academy's compensation decisions to the cumulative financial consequences for families and retirement planning. Their comments also conveyed a shared sense of attachment to the school. These were not educators who had lost interest in TJCA's mission. They were teachers who believed the Academy's success depended on retaining the people who had worked to build it.
The contemporary newspaper article reported approximately ten teachers in attendance.
Additional reporting from February and March 2020 documented educators describing expenditures from their own paychecks to help students meet costs associated with attending the Academy, including expenses beyond classroom supplies. Together, these accounts describe an institution sustained in part by the personal financial sacrifices of its educators, even as those educators questioned whether the Board was making their compensation a sufficient priority. No additional independent interviews with the teachers who addressed the Board, or with former directors involved in the 2020 compensation decisions, have yet been obtained by TJCA Truth. TJCA Truth welcomes firsthand experiences from former and current educators familiar with TJCA's compensation practices, classroom expenditures, salary negotiations, or the reasons experienced teachers chose to leave. Perspectives from Board members and administrators involved in developing the school's compensation budgets would also help establish how financial priorities were determined and whether the 2020 concerns resulted in lasting improvements. Contributors may request anonymity, and private correspondence will not be published without permission.