A new teacher with a bachelor’s degree started at $41,000 in Lee County Public Schools in 2025-26. Of the 121 Virginia school divisions that gave the state a starting figure, that is the lowest, according to the Virginia Department of Education’s 2024-2025 Teacher Salary Survey, a report dated Jan. 14, 2026. Lee’s $43,000 for a master’s degree is also the lowest. Buchanan County is next on both, at $41,116 and $43,736.
The rankings in this story are The Lee Daily Register’s count from that report’s tables and from the state’s vacancy dashboard. We did not find earlier coverage that sets Lee’s figures beside those of Wise, Scott, Dickenson, Russell and Buchanan.
Where the average sits
Starting pay covers only new hires. The report’s division average covers classroom teachers plus librarians and school counselors. For 2024-25, Lee’s was $56,756, which ranks 116th of the 129 divisions with a figure that year, and $18,567 below the statewide average of $75,323.
For 2025-26 the division budgeted an average of $59,421, up 4.7% and which ranks 99th of 129. The statewide budgeted average is $76,924, up 2.1%. A budget is a forecast, though. In the prior year’s survey, Lee projected $59,333 for 2024-25 and then reported an actual $2,577 lower. Forecasts can also leap: Russell’s 2025-26 budget of $58,737 is 18.6% above its 2024-25 actual of $49,519, a jump the report does not explain.
| Division | Bachelor’s starting pay, 2025-26 | Average, 2019-20 | Average, 2024-25 | Budgeted average, 2025-26 | Teacher vacancy rate, 2025-26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wise | $46,400 | $46,457 | $63,337 | $61,689 | 1.48% |
| Scott | $47,895 | $51,075 | $60,961 | $60,515 | 0.60% |
| Lee | $41,000 | $45,784 | $56,756 | $59,421 | 3.04% |
| Dickenson | $45,098 | $42,137 | $56,034 | $54,380 | 2.49% |
| Buchanan | $41,116 | $40,455 | $51,001 | $52,383 | 2.01% |
| Russell | $43,680 | $40,700 | $49,519 | $58,737 | 0.00% |
| Statewide | — | $61,460 | $75,323 | $76,924 | 2.54% |
Five years of raises, and a wider dollar gap
Lee’s average rose 24.0% from 2019-20 to 2024-25, slightly faster than the state’s 22.6%. Because Lee started lower, the dollar gap still grew, from $15,676 to $18,567. Wise rose 36.3% over the same years and Dickenson 33.0%; Scott rose 19.4%.
The report’s Appendix C lists the local increases each division reported for 2021-22 through 2025-26. Lee’s were 5%, 5%, 7%, 3% and 3%. Each matches the state compensation supplement the report lists for that year, and together they add up to 23.00%. Wise matches it too. Over the same stretch, Dickenson reported 26.25%, Buchanan 25.90%, Russell 31.50% and Scott 20.00%. The 2025-26 entry for Lee says the division gave a 3% average increase across its pay scale.
Lee’s average has also been uneven from year to year. It fell 6.4% in 2022-23 and rose 12.6% the next year, according to the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 reports. In 2024-25 it slipped 0.7% even with a 3% raise on the books. The report does not say why.
Vacancies rose to 3%
The state also tracks unfilled teaching jobs. On its Teacher Vacancy Dashboard, Lee’s teacher vacancy rate was 3.0% for 2025-26, up from 1.2% the year before. Earlier years show 1.6% for 2023-24 and 3.7% for 2022-23. The dashboard counted 230.3 teaching positions in Lee in 2025-26, down from 244.8. By our arithmetic, a 3.04% rate on that count is about seven unfilled positions.
That was the highest rate among the six divisions in the table and above the statewide 2.54%, which is 2,463.5 unfilled out of 96,905.4 positions. Together the six had 24.0 unfilled out of 1,667.8 positions, or 1.44%. Lee holds about 14% of those positions but roughly seven of the 24 vacancies, again by our arithmetic. The dashboard views we reviewed give no reasons for any division’s rate.
Differences between Lee’s schools
The state also lists average pay for classroom teachers in each school, a figure that leaves out counselors and librarians. In 2024-25, Lee’s ranged from $49,590 at St. Charles Elementary and $49,713 at Rose Hill Elementary to $55,157 at Jonesville Middle. Lee High averaged $53,613 and Thomas Walker High $53,724. The report does not say what drives the differences between schools.
These figures stop at the 2025-26 school year. WCYB reported on June 30 that the state’s new two-year budget includes a 4% teacher raise, and, in the Russell County superintendent’s statement, that the county’s supervisors funded the required local match but not the extra local money for it. We did not find Lee’s 2026-27 pay figures in the sources we reviewed. The school board’s budget documents would be the place to look.
