Mercer County Special Services District had the highest, while charter schools fell to the bottom of the scale
MERCER COUNTY -- Three Mercer County school districts have among the highest median teacher salaries in the state, ranking in the top 50.
The Mercer County Special Services School District, where the median salary for teachers is $85,175, is the 14th-highest ranked, followed by West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District ($79,850) at No. 34 and Princeton Public Schools ($79,471) at No. 36.
A median salary is one that falls in the exact middle of a ranked payroll; half the teachers earn more and half less. The data comes from the state Department of Education's annual Taxpayers Guide to Education Spending that was released earlier this month.
The special services district, whose per-pupil spending is also the highest in the county at $66,029, serves special-needs students from preschool to age 21. There are only eight such districts in the state, but the median salaries range from $85,175 in Mercer County to $52,860 in Salem County.
On the other side of the spectrum sits the county's charter schools. The International Academy of Trenton Charter School, which opened its doors in September 2014, has the lowest median teacher salaries in the county at $43,500.
Of the eight charter schools, Princeton Charter School has the highest at $62,930, ranking above Lawrence and Robbinsville's school districts. The K-8 school, which opened in 1997, scored high across the board in the PARCC exams.
Amanda Vega, spokeswoman for the New Jersey Charter Schools Association, said charter schools receive less funding than their district counterparts and dedicate about 15 percent of their budgets to financing their own facilities.
"The combination of less funding and faculty financing means fewer operational dollars, which ultimately impacts the schools' abilities to provide teacher salaries competitive with their district counterparts," she said.
Vega said the group has not done a study on whether the salaries have led to high teacher turnover.
Below are the median teacher salaries for the 2014 and 2015 school years:
Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.