Clarification: This article was updated to indicate that 47 school districts did not provide information on their salaries.
Salaries of administrators in the Marshwood district are about average, according to a statewide federation of school boards and superintendents.
A 2024-25 wage survey by the Maine School Management Association found that leadership salaries in the Marshwood district remain below the highest salaries paid in the state.
Information about Marshwood district leadership salaries was based on answers to the Maine School Management Association survey, but only 145 of the 192 districts in Maine provided data, according to district Finance Director Ryan Cormier. While the salary of athletic director Rich Buzzell, at $124,135, is the highest among those districts that responded, the Falmouth High School, Thornton Academy and Scarborough
athletic directors all earn more than he does, said Buzzell.
The MSAD35 superintendent’s salary of $175,668 is 13.5% below the top Maine salary of $199,500, and is ranked 12th from the top in the state.
Other positions analyzed by the survey include high school and middle school principals and assistant principals; assistant superintendent; and directors of human resources, finance, technology, special education, facilities and transportation departments.
Negotiated salary and benefits increases in the $40.6 million proposed 2026-2027 budget make up $707,000 of the $1.6 million increase.
Nearly 400 teachers, administrators and staff will receive either a 3% or 3.8% cost of living increase, depending on which union negotiated their contracts, according to Heidi Early-Hersey, interim superintendent. Contractual insurance costs for the next budget year are more than 8% higher than this year, she noted.
The 20-step wage scale for MSAD35 teachers allows for salary increases by steps, based on educational achievement and years of experience.
For example, the salary for an entry level teacher with a bachelor’s degree is $52,475, while a teacher with 20 years experience and either two master’s degrees or a PhD is $98,475.
According to district Finance Director Ryan Cormier, the average teacher salaries projected for 2026-27 are as follows:
- Bachelor’s degree – $71,118
- Master’s degree -$83,212
- Master’s +15 (master’s degree plus 15 additional credits) – $90,374
- 2nd Master’s/PhD – $95,821
“We are in a high wage area and compete with the rest of York County, Cumberland County and the Seacoast area of New Hampshire for teachers and staff,” Early-Hersey told the Reporter last week.
“We have mostly veteran teachers with only a few newer teachers, so most of our teachers are at the higher end of the scale,” she said. “This is what we want – teacher experience and expertise are the main drivers of student achievement.”
Marshwood High School placed among the top 10 Maine high schools in reading and math proficiency reported by the Maine Department of Education for 2024-25.
According to the dashboard maintained by the DOE, 85.5% of Marshwood High students are proficient in reading, putting the school at the No. 6 spot on the list; and the high school was 9th from the top on the math list, with 66.1% of students proficient.
Statistics on school performance are maintained by the Department of Education on its website at maine.gov/doe/dashboard.
Asked about national surveys of student achievement that cite Maine rankings from 36th to 41st out of 50 states, Early-Hersey said the data used vary from survey to survey.
“Some may measure students at a certain grade level, while others may include such data as accessibility to Pre-K while not including differences in socio-economic factors,” she said.
Comparison of Marshwood to other schools in York and Cumberland counties is more valid, she said, because there is more similarity in the size of the schools and socio-economic factors due to their southern Maine location.
“We compete academically with the same schools we compete with in sports,” Early-Hersey noted.
According to the education department dashboard, MSAD35’s per pupil cost of $19,862 is lower than seven of the 10 schools the district is measured against, but Marshwood High School students tested at 85.5% in reading proficiency – the highest of the schools in that group.
York, which has a per pupil cost of $29,474 , the highest of the 10, had a high school reading proficiency rate of 70.9%.
Yarmouth in Cumberland County, the state’s wealthiest county, had a per pupil cost of $25,284 and the highest ranking in high school math proficiency with a score of 77.2%. Marshwood scored 66.1%.
The cost and competency comparisons are included in the budget packets handed out at the May 11 District Budget Meeting, and are available on the MSAD 35 website.
