Midlands charter school principal paid more than local superintendents. Why?
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.
The newly reported information about Newsome’s salary, obtained by The State through a Freedom of Information Act request, comes as the charter school plans to expand into the Lexington-Richland 5 school district with a new campus aimed to enroll some 600 students during the upcoming school year. Gray has been at the center of contentious conversations about fairness in high school sports in the years since it opened in 2014.
Pennie Peagler, chair of Gray’s board of directors, declined to be interviewed for this story, but said in an emailed statement to The State, “Our board voted unanimously on Dr. Newsome’s salary for this year, in large part, because there is no role like his in conventional public school districts in the Midlands,” noting that Newsome serves as the principal for two campuses, along with a middle school, and that he serves as the lead administrator for all three.
Newsome could not be reached for comment. A spokesperson for the Charter Institute at Erskine, which authorizes Gray’s charter, referred a reporter to the school board regarding questions about Newsome’s salary, explaining that “authorizers have no authority regarding the salary that independent Boards set for their employees.”
Charter schools are required by state law to have an authorizer which is responsible for approving and monitoring the schools. Schools can be authorized by the South Carolina Public Charter School District or, in Gray’s case, by an institution of higher education. In some instances, local school districts act as authorizers for charter schools but only for ones within their enrollment area.
Making more with fewer students
In May of last year, Gray’s board signed a new contract with Newsome, who has been the principal at Gray since 2016, agreeing to an annual salary of $313,150 with the opportunity for yearly raises of 3% for hitting various measured goals over the next five years.
Data from that same time period shows five superintendents from around the Midlands — representing Lexington 1, Lexington 2, Lexington-Richland 5, Richland 1 and Richland 2 — made at least $55,000 less than Newsome all while overseeing budgets and school populations much larger than Gray’s. Brenda Hafner, the superintendent of Lexington 2, earned $128,000 less than the Gray principal. The charter school sits in the enrollment zone for Lexington 2.
And in the year since that contract was initially signed, Newsome was given a roughly 3% raise, worth just shy of $10,000. As new superintendents come in, like Keith Price in the Lexington 1 school district and Todd Anthony Walker for Richland 1, their salaries pale in comparison to Newsome’s. Walker, who Richland 1 hired out of Columbus, Ohio, is making $87,000 less than Newsome currently and Price is making around $86,000 less.
Historically, charter school principals make less than their traditional public school counterparts, data shows. National survey data collected for the 2015-16 school year showed that salaries for traditional school principals averaged $96,400 while charter school principals only saw an average of $88,000 annually. Requests for salary information for the principals of other charter schools in the Midlands were not immediately returned.
Aside from the noticeable disparity between Newsome’s salary and other area principals and superintendents, he’s in charge of fewer students than other superintendents in the area.
The superintendents oversee larger budgets than Newsome – Hafner, in Lexington 2, for example, is the top administrator for a school district of more than 8,400 students that had a $124 million budget last year. Walker, who was recently hired by Richland 1, will oversee around 21,000 students and a $419 million budget.
Why does he make so much?
Peagler, the Gray board chair, contended Newsome was owed more to oversee fewer students because of the fact that the charter school is independently operated and “doesn’t have the administrative support and resources that most public schools have available to their schools.” Charter schools are, however, publicly funded by state and federal dollars and South Carolina gave Gray some $9.2 million in funding last year.
“We do not have a central administrative office like a traditional school district, so our administrative team wears many hats,” Peagler said in an email to The State.
The contract detailed the opportunity for an annual 3% raise for Newsome based on the board’s evaluation of his performance and his ability to meet various metrics. In a statement to The State newspaper, Peagler noted that Newsome was “also compensated for the success he has brought to GCA and in recognition of his various roles.”
The contract, which runs through 2029, lays out incremental bumps in pay if Newsome meets certain goals – an additional 0.75% annually for meeting enrollment and budget goals for the preceding year and another 0.75% if the school receives an overall rating higher than the local district on the state’s school report card.
The Charter Institute, which authorizes 26 charter schools across the state, including Gray, has been mired in controversy in recent years. It spent more than $200,000 on travel, including a five-day trip to London, for its leaders and staff between February 2023 and April 2024, The State previously reported. And it came under legislative scrutiny last year after reporting by The State raised questions about its spending, operations and ability to provide objective oversight of the schools it regulates.
Reporter Zak Koeske contributed to this story.
This story was originally published July 9, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
