Superintendent Receives Highly Effective Evaluation by School Board
District Superintendent Dr. W. Burke Royster received the highest evaluation rating of “highly effective” on all six performance areas and a one-year contract extension through June 30, 2019, by the Greenville County Board of Trustees on his fourth annual performance evaluation.
“The School Board is proud of Dr. Royster’s intense focus on having every student be college or career ready when they graduate from Greenville County Schools,” said Lisa Wells, Board chairman. “Our school system’s multi-pronged approach of offering additional dual-credit, on-line and career-specific courses will ensure that our graduates are better prepared to continue their studies or directly enter the workforce. Greenville County will directly benefit from these efforts through a well-educated workforce and citizens who are actively involved in their community.”
The superintendent’s annual evaluation, which is closely aligned with the school district’s Strategic Education Plan, includes multiple indicators for six performance areas: instructional leadership; quality personnel; culture of achievement; organizational, operational and resource management; communications and community relationships; and tone from the top (modeling professional behavior). Ratings are: highly effective, effective, improvement necessary, and ineffective.
In April 2012, the Board of Trustees approved the initial three-year contract with Dr. Royster as the tenth superintendent of Greenville County Schools, the state’s largest and the nation’s 44th largest school district with 73,000 students. Based on this year’s evaluation, his annual salary as superintendent, which is currently $235,016 will increase one percent and include any across-the-board increase for employees approved in the 2016-17 budget. The contribution to his annuity will increase from 16 to 17 percent of his salary. Also, the separation agreement clause was amended from nine months’ salary or balance due on contract, whichever is less, to one year’s salary or the balance due on the contract, whichever is less.
Dr. Royster served as the school system’s deputy superintendent from 2005 until his selection as district superintendent in 2012. His 36-year education career began in 1980 as a teacher at Starr-Iva Middle School in Anderson School District Three and he assumed his first principalship in 1990 at Waccamaw High School in the Georgetown County School District. Dr. Royster relocated back to the upstate in 1994 as principal of Seneca High School in Oconee County and assumed his first district-level position in 1999 as that district’s assistant superintendent for administration and instruction.