PSD superintendent, cabinet pay raises under scrutiny in school consolidation discussions
While pay for its top executives is only a small fraction of Poudre School District’s annual budget of nearly $500 million, the percent increases Superintendent Brian Kingsley and his cabinet received for the 2023-24 school year are raising eyebrows as the district discusses school consolidations and closings to address expected budget cuts connected to declining enrollment.
Kingsley received a $43,000 raise from the Poudre School District Board of Education from what he earned in 2022-23, increasing his annual salary to $273,000, according to a widely circulated spreadsheet produced through available public records and shared by multiple people with the Coloradoan. That’s an 18.7% increase, significantly higher than the average 10.28% pay increases received by teachers and other school employees.
Kingsley’s salary for 2022-23 was the lowest among superintendents of the state’s 10 largest school districts and lower than the superintendents of 12 of the 15 school districts in Colorado with 20,000 or more students, according to data on the Colorado Department of Education website.
“We feel fortunate to have someone as exceptional as Brian Kingsley to lead PSD,” Board of Education president Kristen Draper said Monday. “His salary and compensation package is in line with comparably sized Colorado districts. Brian has built an all-star cabinet that is leading our district and our students into the future.”
The nine members of the superintendent’s cabinet who were in their current roles in 2022-23 also received pay raises of at least the same percentage as the average district employee, with five receiving larger increases. Their pay is determined by the superintendent, not the Board of Education.
General Counsel Aspen Autumn received a 17.72% salary bump to $163,630 annually. Chief of Staff Lauren Hooten received a 16.13% raise to $178,654 annually. Chief Technology Officer Bud Hunt received a 15.52% increase to $160,628 annually. Assistant Superintendent Traci Gile and Chief Information Officer Madeline Novey received 13.04% increases to $173,167 and $169,984, respectively.
Chief Financial Officer Dave Montoya, Chief Operations Officer Jeff Connell, Chief Human Resources Officer Erich WonSavage and Chief Institutional Effectiveness Officer Dwayne Schmitz all received 10.28% increases. Montoya’s base salary for the 2024 fiscal year that ends June 30 is $190,282, Connell’s is $189,682, WonSavage’s is $187,476 and Schmitz’s is $177,095.
The two newest cabinet members, Assistant Superintendents Julie Chaplain and Insoon Olson, were given starting salaries of $162,500 apiece, slightly higher than the $162,174 annual salary of former Assistant Superintendent Scott Nielsen, now superintendent of Weld County RE-5J School District, which serves Johnstown and Milliken.
PSD went from two assistant superintendents to three following Nielsen’s resignation, a move Poudre Education President John Robinson said Kingsley claimed would be “fiscally neutral” during contract negotiations in April 2023. PSD's budget for the 2022-23 school year, the most-recent completed fiscal year, was $492.7 million.
The salary increases weren’t the only increases in employee compensation the 11 cabinet members received, the spreadsheet shows. There were also boosts — ranging from $2,601 on the low end to $10,655 on the high end — in total compensation in extra pay based on longevity, flex compensation, mileage reimbursement and having a Ph.D.
Community members, including PSD teachers and other employees, have also expressed concern about the growth of administrative positions at the district’s central office. There were 52.13 full-time equivalent employees in central administration in 2013-14 and 96.77 in 2022-23, according to annual financial reports. Enrollment during that same 10-year period increased by 1,182 students, from 28,430 in 2013-14 to 29,612 in 2022-23, according to Colorado Department of Education annual enrollment counts.
The average PSD teacher earned $66,939 in 2022-23, according to Colorado Department of Education. The average pay of school principals and assistant principals in the district was $109,299. Employee salaries and benefits made up 86% of the district's annual budget in 2022-23, Montoya wrote in the district's audited financial report.
Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, x.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: PSD leadership pay raises draw scrutiny in school consolidation talk
