I wish I had some wisdom here, but it's a pretty sticky situation you're in. I count myself lucky that I've never experienced such a thing personally.
I agree with the advice to stay calm, organize, and send a calm rep or reps to talk with whomever you can get to, as far up the chain as possible. Anger, accusations and rumors will not help at all. They may be personally satisfying, but you won't get any closer to the money. In fact, you'll probably end up further away from it.
In some countries I'd suggest a lawyer's help, but that's more useful in some countries than in others.
If the school has a future, it will have to pony up sooner or later. Staying calm, being rational and working out solutions will be your best bet.
If the school doesn't have a future, what then? I don't know.

Options include contacting parents, either overtly or covertly. A quiet word to someone who can be trusted to spread the word in the community. An article in the local press (stick to the facts, please, and avoid speculation and unfounded assumptions - bad press will annoy the school owners enough without making it worse through lies and innuendo). A letter, calm and rational, to the owner, school board president, anyone you can think of. Contact the school's accrediting body. Etc, etc.

But those options will only work if there is money to pay you, which none of us know. You might be able to pressure the school into paying you, but not if they're well and truly and legally broke.

It is a very bad sign that the school has gotten to the point where staff aren't paid. You're on the ground, and probably better able to judge whether this is a case of politics and power (we can do what we like, and we don't feel like paying you), or a case of financial broke-ness. If it's about power, you might get your money in the end, but I'd still be making plans asap to move elsewhere. If there's a legitimate shortage of money, but you believe in the goodwill of the owners/admin/board, than whether you want to stay depends on how much money they'll be able to give you, compared to how much money you feel makes it acceptable for you to stay on.

Best of luck to you and lots of warm wishes. I hope it all turns out really well.

It's not just the number of total students/courses you need to consider, but also the size of the candidate field.
Fewer students take DP Physics HL than take Business Studies, it is true (or so I'm guessing, actually; just an example to make a point). But, there are far fewer qualified Physics HL teachers out there, than there are qualified Business Studies teachers.
If I need to hire 1 Physics teacher, and 2 Business Studies teachers, but there are 20 credible Business Studies teachers applying, and only 1 credible Physics teacher, you see the issue. The Physics applicant gets a job, but 18 Business candidates do not.

Lots of schools help pay for a masters. Some pay nothing, and the scale goes up from there to paying for almost the full cost. For schools that pay close to the full cost, it's usually in a particular program. For example, SUNY runs a number of programs that international schools can offer at pretty low cost for their staff. Courses are designed around school initiatives/needs, and some credits can be earned by attending conferences and writing ridiculously unacademic summary papers. The in-house courses can be great, it depends on how the school organizes it. The conference option is an absolute joke, so happily it is only a certain number of credits you can earn that way. In the end you have a masters. Not the kind that will make schools sit up and take notice, but a real masters that does in theory improve your understanding of teaching/learning/education and can move you up the pay scale or job ladder.

It does seem a common activity.
I think leavers are trying to validate their decision. So, every little thing they see, which previously passed unnoticed, all of a sudden is worthy of negative comment. 'Yep, that's why I'm leaving.'

It's a big scary world out there, and when we choose to leave our familiar nest for the unknown, we like to keep reminding ourselves that we are 'right' to do so.

Still, put a cork in it. Your new school isn't nirvana, this one isn't purgatory, and the rest of us want to get on with the work of solving problems, not just noticing them.

Funny to imagine two leavers in different schools, one at School A heading to School B, the other at B heading to A. Each whinging about their current location, each glorifying their destination.

Apologies if I fell short of your expectations. Lucky for you, I don't charge my fee unless the customer is satisfied. :lol:

Comparisons? Here are some.
A good number of schools do not give paid maternity leave in the first year of service. (A result of schools feeling taken advantage of when new staff turn up pregnant, or take two maternity leaves in a two year contract, and then resign. I'm not taking sides here, just reporting.)

Many schools are legally bound to follow the country's maternity/paternity policies. Western Europe is a good example, but not the only one. Take Sweden - both mother and father get some days, but the bulk of the leave can be taken by either parent.

Pregnant in Central America? Laws against firing pregnant women can be so strong, that no organization would dare touch you at any point during your pregnancy or for a good long bit after you return to work after the birth. (I well remember one case where the mother never informed the school she was pregnant, as she had decided to terminate the pregnancy. Before the termination, she was fired for cause. The woman had the termination, and then sued the school for firing her while she was pregnant. The school lost a bundle.)

There are schools with as little as 4 weeks leave.

I've heard a rumor of a school with no leave at all, but I can't verify that.

Many good schools are flexible and will allow some negotiation, so the mother can take a longer leave, with the extended portion unpaid.

I've seen schools go the extra mile for women facing difficulties. One woman found out several months in that her pregnancy would be pretty much normal and full term, but her baby wouldn't live more than 30 minutes after birth. Everyone circled the wagons, and she didn't work another day during her pregnancy. As a new mother, she also received her full maternity leave, which she needed to grieve.

In Qatar, maternity allowances extend past the leave period. Every mother is allowed an hour a day during the baby's first year, technically so they can nurse the baby. Mothers can negotiate whether to take the hour at the beginning, end or middle of the work day.

In many places, maternity leave is specifically allowed in conjunction with the birth, so as has already been said, if the baby is born at the beginning of the summer, there will be no leave. The argument here is that leave is meant to allow the mother and baby to bond, for the mother to be home for those first weeks when everything is so new and difficult, and for the mother to recover from delivery. If that's the reason, it has to happen when the baby is born. Again, not taking sides, just reporting.

Examine your expectations.
Teaching middle and high school English is only sometimes about discussing literature. It's about teaching students to read critically and write coherently. A lot of work is done with non-fiction, as that's what students will find more useful after high school. There's endless grading of essays. You've proven you can teach at word and sentence level. Are you ready to break down longer pieces of writing, help students discover the key features of different parts, and teach them how to master those features?
I love literature too, and I love discussing it with students. I've had classes that, after much much work from me, could engage in intelligent discussion at a high level. But while that might have been a favored part of the class, it was not the part that my students most needed, and hence not the part that I could devote the most time to.

A few points worth discussion...

Getting one's first admin position is the tricky bit. If you take the VP post for next year, and put in at least 2 years with it, you'll have the admin experience necessary to get another admin post, this time in an international school. It doesn't really matter where you've have an admin post, just that you've had one and been successful.

Getting your first international post, you can expect to aim a little lower than the top tiers, whether you're admin or a teacher. If you've got good experience in a good US school, with good references, apply to tier 1 and 2 schools. Expect to get a tier 2 post, but if you're lucky you'll land a tier 1. It happens, you just can't bank on it. You may also consider what level of admin you're shooting for. If you'll be trying to move up the ladder by securing a principal's post, you'll almost certainly have to stick to tier 2 schools, or even tier 3. If you want to make a lateral move and stay a VP, you can look for tier 1 or 2.

A doctorate is a debatable asset. Many of the top schools pretty much expect that their directors will have doctorates. For principals and lower, it's almost always optional. Given that it's a huge undertaking, consider where you ultimately want to end up. Most of the principals I know do not have doctorates. They almost all have masters, and many have two masters, or a masters plus additional credentials.

Good DP Coordinators are in demand. You can always leverage that experience to get a job overseas. It could be a ticket to a tier 1 school, but only if you went as a DP Coordinator. If you really want to get into admin, take the VP post and work up. Later, you might find a school that wants a combo DP Coordinator and Principal. Or you can find a school that doesn't know they want this, and you can convince them what a great idea it would be.

You should get some experience in the US before going international. Not only would it be very hard for you to find a job in any halfway decent international school, once there you would not have the level of professional support that is so crucial for new teachers.
After two or three years in the US, try your luck overseas.

Define standardized.
The same assessment given to all/most students in standard conditions (meaning the same conditions for all children, not necessarily sitting at desks with number 2 pencils)? Possibly something written by the teachers? This could be fine. Common examples are Running Records, the New Zealand Diagnostic Assessment for Math, end-of-UOI summative assessment. These are all technically standardized assessments, and IMHO very good practice.

If you mean standardized in the more common usage, an externally set and marked assessment with some form of exam conditions, there are some in use, and yes in PYP schools too. MAP has an early years form, and ACER is just coming on the market with one. I'm not as convinced by these, but then again I've never seen either one used, so I'm not in much position to judge.

A reasonable amount of time is whatever you agreed to when you signed your contract.
Or it's a number that you determined in advance of recruiting, and you didn't accept any offer with a lower number.
Honestly, maternity is such a personal thing, and there are so many different cultural norms, I don't think there is a standard number. You need to decide for yourself what you need.
But please don't blame the school if their number is lower than yours. All schools are different, and unless they actively lied to you at recruiting, it is your responsibility to ask the question before you sign. (As it is your responsibility to ask all questions which are important to you personally. It is not the school's responsibility to guess which of 713 possible questions are the 21 which matter most to you.)

How long is a piece of string?
Really, you have to ask the individual school. Just send your list to your assigned buddy or contact. They should be happy to help.
My school has all that and more. Most schools probably have most of that, if not all of it. But there's plenty of variety in the world.

I think newguy and I have pretty clearly expressed an idea about what generally constitutes admin. All schools are different, all situations are different, and one can always find an exception to any rule. Except perhaps Newton's Three Laws. There's no need to point out ridiculous extreme interpretations and attribute them to us on the grounds that we communicated a general theory. That doesn't prove you right any more than it proves us wrong.

Sorry, mine was totally tongue in cheek. I was trying to say, with a resume like that, though, you probably have options.

Post an address. Contract will follow by mail.

There are intern programs in international schools, not necessarily part of a stateside program. To go out on a limb, they are most often found in the larger and better schools, though some lesser schools might try calling something an intern program when they really just intend to get naive teachers cheaply. Good programs are competitive, and as you say, do not pay well, but the idea is that people get great experience they would otherwise not be able to get. Good schools just won't hire you as a regular teacher until you're tried and tested, so this can make a decent alternative. But again, competitive. Generally for qualified individuals without the requisite two years experience for regular hiring.

Some interns might be part of a teacher prep program. Sometimes a school will have a relationship with a particular stateside uni, in which they regularly hire an intern. Other times the intern is part of a stateside program which allows this kind of thing, and the intern has to go look for a school to take them on. And still other times, there isn't a program, just someone looking for experience.