Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The Colfax school board approved a raise May 28 for district principals and administrative year-round staff.
They include the superintendent, principals at the high school and elementary school, transportation supervisor, technology director, maintenance director, business manager and the district's executive assistant.
Jerry Pugh, superintendent, made the proposal to the board.
“I had to get it balanced out, to get things equitable across the board,” Pugh said.
The raises include two percent inflationary increase based on the Implicit Price Deflator for Personal Consumption (published by the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis in the Department of Commerce) plus seven percent for principals.
Administrative employees receive a two percent inflationary raise plus five percent.
After last year's Colfax raises in the 10 percent range for teachers and five percent for classified staff, some administrators on 205-day contracts made less per diem than the top teachers on 180-day contracts.
“We had to make that adjustment to get the administration above that,” Pugh said. “We just did some catch-up. We should be good for years to come that way.”
Board member David Nails was the lone “no” vote.
“I just felt it was not the right time to do that,” Nails said. “I felt like we got a lot going on right now. There's a lot of unknowns. Construction, we don't know what the final cost is on that either.”
He noted the possible increased cost of health insurance for the district with new rules for School Employees Benefits Board which could require districts to cover part-time employees' insurance.
“I was just trying to be conservative. It's not that I felt they didn't need a raise, I just didn't feel the timing was right. Are we gonna find something else in the school that costs more? I just couldn't get on board with this one,” Nails said.
Efforts to reach other board members before deadline were unsuccessful.
“They're modest increases, and we paid utmost attention to to where we are fiscally, to make sure it is sustainable,” Pugh said.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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