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In a 6-1 vote, the Powell school board approved a 2% raise for Superintendent Jay Curtis for the coming year.
Trustee Kim Dillivan supported the salary increase, saying he believes Curtis …
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In a 6-1 vote, the Powell school board approved a 2% raise for Superintendent Jay Curtis for the coming year.
Trustee Kim Dillivan supported the salary increase, saying he believes Curtis “does a really nice job” for Park County School District No. 1.
“I anticipate that in the future, he’ll do a nice job,” Dillivan said. “You know, you might make the argument that he deserves more. However, I think a 2% increase, to me, shows that we are being financially responsible.”
The 2% increase is in line with what the district does for other administrators every two years, said Trace Paul, vice chairman of the board, who made the motion for the salary amount. Curtis didn’t get a raise last year.
The 2% increase amounts to $3,223, bringing Curtis’ annual salary to $164,383.
Trustee Don Hansen cast the lone dissenting vote.
“I plan on voting no against this — not for the need that Jay probably deserves it, but the way the economy is this year, with the oil prices being the way they are, the farmers in perils the way they are, the state of Wyoming being in the way they are,” Hansen said.
In a separate vote, Hansen was also the only board member to vote against step and lane increases for district employees.
Following last month’s 6-1 vote for the superintendent’s salary, Chairman Greg Borcher thanked Curtis.
“You do a great job for us,” Borcher told the superintendent. “Keep up the good work.”
Curtis thanked board members for their vote of confidence.
“I feel blessed to come to work here every day, and I mean that with all sincerity,” he said. “There’s never a day that I wake up that I think, ‘Boy, I just don’t want to go to work today.”
He said the job is “challenging on the best of days and can be excruciating on the worst days, particularly through times like this pandemic.”
“There have been certainly many, many nights of lack of sleep,” Curtis said. “But I just want to say that no matter what the situation is, I just love being here. I love who I work with, and I love who I work for, so thank you very much.”
Curtis was hired as the district’s superintendent in 2017. Earlier this year, the board unanimously voted to retain Curtis for another two years, offering him a contract through June 2022.
