By Dakota Antelman — [email protected]
Superintendent Laurie Hunter could continue to helm the Concord Public Schools and Concord-Carlisle High School through 2030 thanks to a new five-year contract extension.
The agreement takes effect July 1 and includes an 8 percent salary bump in its first year, according to a copy of the contract that was shared with The Concord Bridge.
“I’m honored to stay and bring us to whatever the next five years bring,” Hunter said shortly before the School Committee formally approved the deal.
Hunter came to CPS/CCHS in 2017 and secured her first contract extension in 2020.
CPS School Committee chair Carrie Rankin announced the extension on December 10 and thanked Hunter for her service.
Hunter’s pay hike combines a 5 percent raise and a 3 percent cost of living increase. Altogether, her salary will climb to $280,800 in the next fiscal year. Additional cost of living increases, Rankin said, “will be decided by future [School] Committees.”
Foundation of leadership
The School Committee approved the extension unanimously. In comments before the decision, School Committee member Alexa Anderson praised Hunter’s ability to build a “tremendously competent” foundation of leadership.
“There’s nothing sexy about a foundation,” she said. “But without the foundation, nothing else matters.”
Hunter said she is excited for milestones including the opening of the new Ellen Garrison Building at Concord Middle School. She also cited other efforts, including work to close achievement gaps in local schools.
“There’s a lot of other things on the goalposts here that I think we’re making some great momentum on,” Hunter said.

Pushback and support
While she earned praise from the School Committee, Hunter and the committee have faced criticism over their handling of the CPS/CCHS METCO program and issues involving race.
The METCO program buses students from Boston to Concord schools as part of a voluntary program intended to increase diversity.
Concord’s METCO Parent Teacher Group dissolved last month amid complaints from the group’s leaders about concerns ranging from alleged racist incidents to inadequate minority inclusion in high-level classes.
Domingos DaRosa, who resigned his post as a METCO representative on the School Committee after the PTG dissolved, attended the December 10 meeting and spoke during the public comment period.
“Let’s look at the track record,” he said. “Let’s look at the data. Let’s look at the folks who are really being impacted [by] the lack of leadership.”
Speaking after DaRosa, parent Wilson Kerr backed Hunter. Kerr, a Bridge opinion columnist who does not write about education for the newspaper and spoke on his own behalf, said Hunter “has the support of the teachers in [the] school district” and praised the superintendent for her efforts to pass “difficult budget issues” at Town Meeting.
He recalled Hunter’s work to safely reopen schools during the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting gratitude of many parents.
Other districts’ salaries
Hunter’s current contract had her making $260,000 effective July 1, 2024.
In comparison, the superintendent of schools for the Acton-Boxborough Regional School District is getting $248,525, according to his publicly available contract.
The superintendent/principal of Lincoln Sudbury High School is being paid $211,140. The Sudbury schools superintendent, who oversees K-8 students, gets $194,000.
More recent data isn’t available, but a Wicked Local report said Lexington’s school superintendent made $300,361 in 2022.
Enrollment in the Concord Public Schools and Concord-Carlisle High School ranks third on the list, behind Acton-Boxborough and the Lexington Public Schools.
