Brunswick County Schools renews contract with Superintendent Dale Cole

BOLIVIA, NC (WWAY) — The Brunswick County Board of Education announced on Friday that they reached an agreement with Superintendent Dale Cole to extend his contract. The extension comes with a salary increase.

“This move is to align Superintendent Cole’s salary with those of superintendents in similarly sized districts in the state. Moreover, the Board also weighed Mr. Cole’s salary increase against the annual increases BCS staff have received since his arrival in 2023. In keeping with the lower range of those increases, Cole’s new salary represents an average annual increase of 4.5% since his hire date,” Board Chairman Steve Gainey said.

Coles has lead Brunswick County Schools for 2.5 years and during this time the district says they have seen a significant increase in career and technical education enrollment.

The school district says Cole also has overseen a 46% drop in the truancy rate, a 6% increase in the graduation rate, and a large enrollment increase in Advanced Placement classes.

Cole said the following:

“Over the last 2.5 years, for the first time in Brunswick County, we have implemented district wide curricula for all state tested subjects, at all grade levels. Simultaneously, we developed a common instructional framework through which to deliver a uniform approach to instruction and establish clear expectations and accountability around its implementation. These two systemic changes are central pieces of our 5 year Strategic Plan and they have come at a serious investment of time, training and money. Consequently, I believe we now have a solid foundation to build on to achieve our Strategic Plan goal of having 100% of Brunswick County Schools at or exceeding growth by 2030.”