§ 115C-285.  Salary.

(a) Principals and supervisors shall be paid promptly when their salaries are due provided the legal requirements for their employment and service have been met. All principals and supervisors employed by any local school administrative unit who are to be paid from local funds shall be paid promptly as provided by law and as state-allotted principals and supervisors are paid.

Principals and supervisors paid from State funds shall be paid as follows:

(1) Classified principals and State-allotted supervisors shall be employed for a term of 12 calendar months. Each local board of education shall establish a set date on which monthly salary payments to classified principals and State-allotted supervisors shall be made. This set pay date may differ from the end of the calendar month of service. Classified principals and State-allotted supervisors shall only be paid for the days employed as of the set pay date. Payment for a full month when days employed are less than a full month is prohibited as this constitutes prepayment. They shall earn annual vacation leave at the same rate provided for State employees. On a day that employees are required to report for a workday but pupils are not required to attend school due to inclement weather, an employee may elect not to report due to hazardous travel conditions and to take one of his annual vacation days or to make up the day at the time agreed upon by the employee and his immediate supervisor. They shall be provided by the board the same or an equivalent number of legal holidays as those designated by the State Human Resources Commission for State employees.

(2) Supervisors and classified principals paid on an hourly or other basis whether paid from State or from local funds may accumulate annual vacation leave days as follows: annual leave may be accumulated without any applicable maximum until June 30 of each year. On June 30 of each year, any supervisor or principals with more than 30 days of accumulated leave shall have the excess accumulation converted to sick leave so that only 30 days are carried forward to July 1 of the same year. All vacation leave taken by the employee will be upon the authorization of his immediate supervisor and under policies established by the local board of education. An employee shall be paid in a lump sum for accumulated annual leave not to exceed a maximum of 240 hours or 30 days when separated from service due to resignation, dismissal, reduction in force, death, or service retirement. Upon separation from service due to service retirement, any annual vacation leave over 30 days will convert to sick leave and may be used for creditable service at retirement in accordance with G.S. 135-4(e). If the last day of terminal leave falls on the last workday in the month, payment shall be made for the remaining nonworkdays in that month. Employees retiring on disability retirement may exhaust annual leave rather than be paid in a lump sum. The provisions of this subdivision shall be accomplished without additional State and local funds being appropriated for this purpose. The State Board of Education shall adopt rules and regulations for the administration of this subdivision.

(3) Notwithstanding any provisions of this section to the contrary no person shall be entitled to pay for any vacation day not earned by that person. Vacation days shall not be used for extending the term of employment of individuals and shall not be cumulative from one fiscal year to another fiscal year, except as provided in subdivision (5) of this section.

(4) Each local board of education shall sustain any loss by reason of an overpayment to any principal or supervisor paid from State funds.

(5) All of the foregoing provisions of this section shall be subject to the requirement that at least fifty dollars ($50.00), or other minimum amount required by federal social security laws, of the compensation of each school employee covered by the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System or otherwise eligible for social security coverage shall be paid in each of the four quarters of the calendar year.

(6) The State Board of Education, in fixing the State standard salary schedule of principals as authorized by law, shall provide that principals who entered the armed or auxiliary forces of the United States after September 16, 1940, and who left their positions for such service, shall be allowed experience increments for the period of such service as though the same had not been interrupted thereby, in the event such persons return to the position of teachers, principals or superintendents in the public schools of the State after having been honorably discharged from the armed or auxiliary forces of the United States.

(7) All persons employed as principals in the schools and institutions listed in G.S. 115C-325.10 shall be compensated at the same rate as are teachers in the public schools in accordance with the salary schedule adopted by the State Board of Education.

(8) A teacher who becomes an assistant principal shall be paid, on a monthly basis, at least as much as he or she would earn as a teacher employed by that local school administrative unit.

(8a) A teacher who becomes a principal shall be paid on a monthly basis, at least as much as he or she would earn as a teacher employed by that local school administrative unit.

(9) An assistant principal who becomes a principal shall be paid, on a monthly basis, at least as much as he or she would earn as an assistant principal employed by that local school administrative unit.

(b) Every local board of education may adopt, as to principals and supervisors not paid out of State funds, a salary schedule, but it likewise shall recognize a difference in salaries based on different duties, training, experience, professional fitness, and continued service in the same school system; but if any local board of education shall fail to adopt such a schedule, the State salary schedule shall be in force.

(c) The board of education may withhold the salary of any supervisor or principal who delays or refuses to render such reports as are required by law, but when the reports are delivered in accordance with law, the salary shall be paid forthwith. (1955, c. 1372, art. 5, s. 32; art. 6, s. 13; art. 17, s. 9; art. 18, s. 6; 1961, c. 1085; 1965, c. 584, s. 3; 1971, c. 1052; 1973, c. 315, s. 2; c. 647, s. 1; 1975, c. 383; c. 437, s. 9; c. 608; c. 834, ss. 1, 2; 1979, c. 600, ss. 1-5; 1981, c. 423, s. 1; c. 639, s. 4; c. 946, s. 2; 1983, c. 872, s. 2; 1985, c. 757, s. 145(d); 1985 (Reg. Sess., 1986), c. 975, s. 15; 1987, c. 414, s. 5; 1989, c. 386, s. 1; 1993, c. 321, s. 73(b); 1995, c. 450, s. 18; 1997-443, s. 8.38(g); 1999-237, s. 28.26(d); 2013-360, s. 9.7(g); 2013-382, s. 9.1(c); 2015-241, ss. 9.5(a), (b); 2016-94, s. 9.3(a).)