Moses Lake administrators receive raise

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake School district administrators will receive a small raise for the 2016-17 school year. Moses Lake School Board members approved raises for the district’s administration team at the regular board meeting Thursday.

District superintendent Michelle Price’s salary will be $175,141 for 2016-17, an increase of 4.1 percent, which includes a 1.8 percent increase in the state allocation for administrative salaries. (The 1.8 percent raise applies to all administrative salaries.) Assistant superintendent Josh Meek will make $147,363 next school year, also a 4.1 increase.

Eric Johnson, director of business and operations, and Kristi Hofheins, the director of teaching and learning, will make $137,363, a 4.5 percent increase. Dave Balcom, director of student services, will make $134,362, a 2.1 percent increase. In answer to a question from board member Eric Stones, Balcom said his salary is different because the job is different.

Board member Vicki Groff said the district sets administrative salaries by comparing Moses Lake with districts of similar size. Meek said officials compared Moses Lake with districts between 6,000 and 8,500 students; Moses Lake had about 8,000 students in the 2015-16 school year.

The board’s goal is to keep salaries in the middle of that range, she said. The district isn’t in the upper half of that range, Groff said – but Moses Lake never has been in the upper half, said board chair Kevin Donovan.

In other business, board members discussed changes to the district’s field trip policy.

The review, Meek said, was at the request of board members, who were asked to look over the existing policy and recommend changes at the July 28 board meeting.

Groff said at an earlier meeting she was concerned about cases where one staff member was escorting one or two students, or where one staff member of one sex was escorting kids of the opposite sex. Meek said student safety had to be the highest priority, but board members also have to think about balancing those needs with the fiscal and staffing impacts. Board members also should decide if the standards for field trips should be applied to athletics.

In answer to a question from Groff, Meek detailed the cost of replacing a big toy destroyed by arson at North Elementary, and how a $20,000 donation from the Seattle Seahawks fit into the finances.

The playground equipment was destroyed in April; Meek said the total cost to replace it was about $80,000. The district’s insurance paid for about $30,000, Meek said, so the Seahawks donation, delivered in a June 24 visit to the school, helped offset some of the cost to the district.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.