Chelsea Self / Post Independent file
Roaring Fork Schools Superintendent Rob Stein could receive a one-year contract extension and a $7,277 yearly pay raise under a deal before the RFSD school board Wednesday night.
In recent weeks, the school board has been conducting its annual review with Stein.
The result of those negotiations is on the table for consideration when the board convenes at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Bridges High School in Carbondale.
The deal calls for a 4.5% pay raise and one-year contract extension until June 30, 2021, beyond the term spelled out in Stein’s current contract that expires on June 30, 2020.
It also calls for a pay increase from $160,000 to $167,277 — retroactive over the past two years and going forward through the end of the new contract.
Under the deal, Stein would receive $162,880 for the fiscal year from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018, and $167,277 starting this past July.
Stein became superintendent of schools in Glenwood Springs, Carbondale and Basalt in July 2016 after former Superintendent Diana Sirko decided to leave a year earlier than planned.
Stein was the assistant superintendent up until that time, but an agreed-to succession plan called for him to take over for Sirko in 2017.
Sirko, the former Aspen Schools superintendent who is now superintendent of Mesa County District 51 schools, was hired in 2012 as interim superintendent for the Roaring Fork Schools. Stein had been previously hired to become superintendent in 2012, but had to resign before taking the job due to a family emergency.
Since taking the helm in 2016, Stein has not seen a pay raise, according to a memo to the school board from district Human Resources Director Amy Littlejohn.
Stein’s current contract states that pay increases “shall be subject to the same cost of living adjustment as approved by the Board of Education for district employees,” according to the memo.
However, “for each subsequent school year since 2016-17, (his) salary has been less than the increase for other district employee groups,” according to the memo.
The proposed pay adjustment brings Stein’s compensation closer to other comparable school district superintendents in Colorado, but is still less than the rate of pay increase for other Roaring Fork District positions, Littlejohn’s memo notes.
Had the superintendent’s salary tracked with raises for other district positions, his new salary would be $180,116, she pointed out in the memo.
By comparison, looking at eight other mountain school districts in Colorado, Stein’s proposed salary would be 4% below the mean superintendent’s salary of $174,337.
And, extending the comparison to six Front Range school districts, Stein would be compensated 20% less than the mean salary of $209,696, according to the memo.
