NORTH KINGSTOWN — Nearly half of the School Department’s top 10 wage-earners in 2006 were administrators.

None of them work here anymore.

Mostly longtimers, they left after 2006 — sometimes amid attacks by parents, school board members and various groups.

Embattled Supt. James M. Halley earned $120,354.26, making him the highest-paid school employee in 2006.

The same year, Halley was named School Superintendent of the Year. The state’s top educators called him a visionary and a dedicated educator.

But others called him unresponsive and charged him with mismanaging the district. Last May the School Committee asked him to leave before his contract expired.

Also gone is Daniel J. McGregor, the former director of pupil services. McGregor earned more than $103,000 in 2006, making him the third-highest wage-earner in the district. The veteran administrator retired abruptly last year after two parents alleged that he billed the district for trips unconnected to his school work. The state Ethics Commission cleared him of the charges. McGregor did, however, pay a $500 fine for failing to report outside income in 2003.

“We are really divided,” Wickford Middle School principal Kathleen J. Mort told the Journal in 2007. Mort, who served briefly as emergency superintendent, earned $101,608.10 in 2006, making her the district’s fourth-highest wage-earner.

She’s gone too.

So is Barbara A. Fitzsimmons, the district’s former curriculum director, who earned more than $101,000 in 2006. Last year Fitzsimmons noted that, for the first time, the school’s nine schools were all top performers, according to standards set by the state Department of Education.

Maureen S. Buck, who joined the district in 1986 as a clerk, spent 17 years as controller before becoming finance director. In 2006 she earned just over $96,000, making her the sixth-highest-paid school department employee. Buck retired last August.

The Providence Journal compiled the list of top-paid employees as part of a statewide look at school and municipal payroll spending in calendar year 2006. Figures were given to the newspaper by local school and town officials.

The state Open Records Law requires public agencies to make available certain information about their employees, including names, job titles and pay.

The Journal’s compilation looked at gross pay, the total amount paid to employees before taxes are deducted. It does not include the cost of benefits, but it does include base salary or wages, and other income, such as overtime, stipends and severance packages.

Still-working principals make up the second half of the Journal’s school list.

Near the top is North Kingstown High School principal Gerald K. Foley, who earned $104,722.67 in 2006, the second-highest wage-earner in the district. Foley was named Rhode Island Principal of the Year in 2005. More recently, U.S. News & World Report magazine ranked the high school among the top 500 in the nation.

Four other principals earned around $94,000 in 2006: Ruthanne Logan at Davisville Middle School; Louise M. Denette at Quidnessett Elementary School; Robert P. Vincze at Forest Park Elementary School, and Louise B. Pankiewicz-DiCarlo at Davisville Elementary School.

pdavis@projo.com