day care center director

mommymegan831

I'm a classroom teacher with 7 years experience.  I need to get out of the classroom so I applied for a job as a center director with the learning experience and got a call.  I haven't returned the call but I found a pay range on glass door for $27000-$29000.  Does that sound right for a director in NJ?  I make about $60,000 now and really can't afford much of a pay cut.

Netty_3

I don;t know about NJ, but in CO that isnot correct. DH is the head of school of a Montessori school and he makes close to twice that.

bethann3181

I don't know for sure, but unfortunately, I think that sounds about right.  I live in PA (Phila suburbs, so close comparison to COL) and a good friend of mine works at a local Goddard as a head teacher and makes about $18K per year.  Our nanny quit a Children of America center to come work for us, and was making under $17K a year.  So, for a director position, that might be correct.  Sorry

Brit's Luna154

I don't know, but I know that in rural Indiana our daycare Director is driving a brand new Escalade and the Associate Ddirector has a brand new Lincoln MKX. I don't knowwhat their husbands do or if they are in debt up to their eyeballs, but I'm guessing that even here they are getting paid far more than $29K.

ETA: This is a pretty big center, there are more than 300 kids. Not sure what size facility you are looking at.

tabaskoa

CTGirl30:

Are you guys serious? I would've guessed a director made more. This is depressing. I'm glad that our center does a staff appreciation week where parents provide all teachers with a nice lunch one day, a breakfast the next, assemble gift bags, etc. Lord knows they aren't in this career path for the paycheck.

Me too! Wow! The director at our center works her butt off. I know the teachers don't get paid much, but I thought the director would!

Netty_3

Estwd2:

Netty_3:

I don;t know about NJ, but in CO that isnot correct. DH is the head of school of a Montessori school and he makes close to twice that.

I wouldn't compare Montessori salaries to standard daycare salaries. Montessori charges more, so the teachers make more. 

To the OP, that sounds about right. I looked into this at one point before finding my current position. In a higher COLA it'd be more, but definitely not $60,000. ECE is not something you go into the for money.

I think it's valid, becuase he works for a company that also does world schools as well.  I think the pay is somewhat similar, maybe a little less.  He made almost 29k when he first started as an assistant teacher many years ago. 

cecilyandgautam

Wow, that's really low! My in-home DCP makes about 36k a year watching 3 kids. If you get licensed by the state, you can watch 4 kids at a time, so that would be 48k a year. 

One of the in-home I interviewed was charging 2000 per kid per month and watched 8 kids (the couple did it together so it was the legal ratio). They keep posted about their openings on a local mom listserve but if they ever do manage to fill up, they'd be making 192k a year - even if they don't ever max out, clearly some parents are willing to pay this for whatever reason. 

Netty_3

Okay, maybe I'm not aware how other places do it.  For all DH does and all the dedication he has, I would be pretty upset if he got paid that for it.

pitterpatter129

I also teach and have looked into a daycare director job here.  The pay was very similiar to what you found.  Really, compared to teaching jobs here, that's not really a huge paycut from what I already make, although it's still a drop in pay.  I know I wouldn't qualify for the job either here!  Even with a teaching degree, I'd still need to go back to school for some business classes!

lujain

I live in a HCOL area.  I've seen listings at my daughter's daycare for teachers, and the job pays about $21 per hour.  So $27-29k sounds low for a director.

LoCarb

I really thought DC directors were paid much more. I just did a search on my area and average Child Care Director makes $25.65hr = $53.3k.  I'm in TX and there are no HCOL areas. Also, the article mentioned Montessori Directors get paid abt $10k more.

badkittyct

As a lead teacher in a daycare in NJ, I made less than $10/hr and healthcare was so expensive that it was cheaper to pay out of pocket.

 

I can see 30k being a low starting base for a director though.