Walled Lake - Teacher and Administrator Contracts

[Shadowninja]

Lady Budgetdown: Society Spending Exposed

Dearest Readers,

Lady Budgetdown has reviewed the Walled Lake teacher and administrator agreements.

Not to create a contest.

Not to declare one group more deserving than another.

Simply to place the contractual provisions in plain view and allow the public to decide what they mean.

For 2025–26, Walled Lake's teacher salary schedule begins at $45,000 for a first-step teacher with a bachelor's degree and reaches $103,479 for a Step-13 teacher with a doctorate. Step-13 teachers also receive a one-time $2,000 off-schedule payment, bringing the highest scheduled amount to approximately $105,479 before coaching, overload assignments, department duties or other supplemental work.

Walled Lake teachers also have strong education lanes. At the top step, the annual difference between the bachelor's and doctorate lanes is $17,374. Advanced education therefore continues to produce meaningful salary growth throughout a teacher's career.

Their leave provisions are also notable.

Full-time teachers receive 11 PTO days annually, and those days accumulate without a stated limit. The PTO may be used for illness, family needs, adoption, bereavement, emergencies and other compelling personal reasons. Teachers also receive up to three bereavement days that do not come from their accumulated PTO.

Teachers have numerous opportunities for additional compensation, including extra-class pay, coaching and extracurricular assignments, summer and curriculum work, testing and coordinator stipends, and a $2,000 National Board Certification stipend.

Administrator salaries range considerably by position. For 2025–26, the top ranges include approximately:

$121,188 for a middle school assistant principal
$126,973 for an elementary principal
$132,717 for a middle school principal
$137,370 for the director of special services
$144,572 for a high school principal

Administrators work between 213 and 230 contractual days, depending on position, excluding listed holidays and holiday periods.

Their contract also provides several benefits outside base salary, including:
Annual vehicle allowances of $750 to $1,500
Up to $600 for professional dues
Approved conference expenses of up to $1,000 per member, when financially feasible
A $400 annual cell-phone reimbursement
A $2,000 health-insurance opt-out payment
$200,000 in district-paid life insurance
Long-term disability coverage of up to $10,000 per month

The sick-bank provisions also differ.

Teachers must exhaust their accumulated PTO and then face an express 18-school-day waiting period before sick-bank days are issued. That waiting period does not appear in the administrator agreement, which allows administrators to request sick-bank coverage after exhausting their accumulated sick leave. Both groups have repayment obligations after using bank days.

And then there are the retirement and separation provisions.

Eligible teachers may receive terminal pay of up to $7,500, a $500 early-notification incentive and payment at the substitute rate for half of their unused accumulated PTO.

Eligible administrators may receive retirement pay of up to $30,000, plus payment for half of unused accumulated sick leave, also capped at $30,000.

That creates a potential combined administrator retirement and separation payment of:

Up to $60,000

The Walled Lake contracts do not tell a one-sided story.

Teachers have strong education lanes, flexible PTO with unlimited accumulation and numerous opportunities for extra-duty compensation.

Administrators work substantially longer calendars and receive several additional benefits beyond base salary, particularly vehicle and professional allowances, larger expressly stated insurance protections, and retirement and separation payments potentially reaching $60,000.

The provisions that stand out most to Lady Budgetdown are:

The administrator's potential $60,000 combined retirement and separation payout.

The administrator's $200,000 life-insurance benefit.

The teacher's unlimited and broadly usable PTO accumulation.

The teacher's advanced-education salary lanes.

The teacher sick bank's 18-day waiting period, which does not appear in the administrator contract.

The administrator vehicle, conference, professional-dues and cell-phone allowances.

Different jobs.

Different responsibilities.

Different contracts.

Lady Budgetdown's role is not to tell readers what to think.

Only to make certain they know what the contracts say.

Make of the information what you will.

— Lady Budgetdown

The receipts remain undefeated.