Jonathan Eades, head of school, at the Kinkaid School in Houston.
Jon Shapley/Staff photographer
The faculty and staff of the Kinkaid School, one of Houston’s most expensive private schools, regularly rub shoulders with some of the city’s wealthiest people.
And Kinkaid head of school Jonathan Eades may count as one himself. In 2022, according to the school’s most recent tax filings, he earned a compensation package worth just more than $1 million. Eades, formerly the head of St. Mary’s Hall in San Antonio, was hired by Kinkaid in 2020 after a nationwide search.
Eades is likely the most highly compensated private school head in the Houston area. But his pay is not out of line with that of many peers, who often make many times more than principals, their public school counterparts. The average principal in Houston makes about $114,000, and the superintendent of the entire Houston public school district, Mike Miles, receives a salary of $380,000.
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Across the country, the median salary for a head of school in the 2023-24 school year was $300,000, and the median starting salary for teachers was $48,000, according to the National Association of Independent Schools. Those figures don’t include paid tuition for children of educators, which can be a significant component of compensation packages.
The compensation reflects the scope of Eades’ role and the size of the institution, said Peggy England, director of strategic communication for Kinkaid. The school, in Piney Point, has about 1,500 students from pre-K to 12th grade, nearly 500 faculty and staff and about 7,500 living alumni, England said, many of whom live in the Houston area.
“Just like with any industry, compensation is such an important factor in attracting and retaining qualified and seasoned executives who can lead an institution of this size,” England said.
Being the head of a private school today means fundraising, philanthropy and alumni relations as well as the core work of leading a school: “That’s a big portfolio for an individual,” England said.
EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION: Here are Houston’s most highly paid executives.
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Houston’s private or independent schools run the gamut from those such as Kinkaid and St. John’s, famous for their college-preparatory programs, to specialized schools such as the Joy School in Montrose, which focuses on students with special needs from kindergarten through 8th grade.
The Joy School is the most expensive in Houston, according to a recent analysis by the Houston Chronicle, with tuition of $52,080 for the 2024-25 school year. But it’s a relatively small operation, with revenue of about $11 million in the 2022-23 school year, expenses of about $9 million and enrollment of about 150 students. IRS records show that head of school Shara Bumgarner received compensation of about $267,000.
By contrast, the Kinkaid School had revenue of about $82 million in 2022, and expenses of about $62 million, including $36 million in salaries and compensation. The school is also in the midst of a $180 million fundraising campaign, the largest such campaign of any private school in Texas.
IRS forms give some sense of how compensation packages may be structured to attract and retain leaders.
Eades’ base salary, for example, was about $500,000 in calendar year 2022. He also received a bonus that year of $150,000, approved by the school’s board of trustees, and a housing component: Kinkaid requires the head to live in a property it owns adjoining the Piney Point campus, England said.
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Heads of several other prominent Houston private schools earned compensation around the half-million mark. Daniel J. Alig of St John’s School received compensation of about $570,000 in the 2022-23 school year; Stuart J. Dow, head of the Emery-Weiner School, received a package worth about $512,000.
Tax reporting requirements, which help reveal the financial information of these schools, don’t apply to many of Houston’s most expensive private schools. Episcopal High School, the Regis School and the Presbyterian School, for example, are exempt from filing because they are religious organizations.
